Undeniable
by for you to notice
Summary: He's Seth Cohen. He's beautiful, and he's popular, and he's charming, and he's the guy every guy wants to be, every girl wants to be with. And she was just Summer Roberts.
1. The Pilot

_What if Seth was King of Harbor and Summer was a joke?_

_Yeah, so this has been in my head for a while (ever since the last time it was kind of done) but I was never sure whether or not I wanted to actually post it considering the pretty unoriginal concept. It was fun, though, and it actually didn't turn out that bad. And I think it's different, because there's no twist and the events are very much like what actually happened in The O.C. It's just how I think it might have happened if the roles were reversed. Ooh yeah, and everything belongs to Josh Schwartz, even more in this story than in my other ones. Let me know what y'all think, and I'll see if the next chapter wants to come out okay too._

"You _do_ look rad. Mad props, son."

Seth moved his eyes to the corner of his eye and shook his head. His dad...needed medical attention. Like, really, _really_ soon. Ryan walked in, and Seth let out a long breath. Ryan would deal with the parentals, and Seth could go find Holly.

Seth tapped Ryan's shoulder on his way out. "Tag in."

Holly was actually waiting at the front door for him, one hand on the door frame, the other in front of her face, her eyes scanning her nails. She looked up when she saw him. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's go. Quick, or else my dad's going to start rapping, and the world is not ready for a forty-two year old, Jewish 'gangsta.'"

"Okay." Holly shrugged, taking his hand and pulling him to her BMW.

"New present?"

"Mm-hmm. My dad gave it to me for getting that A in US History. Because of you. Thank you, baby." Holly pecked him lightly on the cheek. Seth nodded.

"No problem. You look cute."

Holly grinned and swirled the little denim skirt, causing her red tank top to ride up and a sliver of midriff to come to air. "You look good yourself." She tapped his chest and cocked her head toward the passenger seat. He slid into his seat and kissed her hand on the wheel before completely groaning and falling back into his seat.

"God, Holly, you couldn't get a stick for once?"

"I don't need it. I can drive this just fine, why change a good thing?"

Seth rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway. "Fine. You're going to learn sometime, though."

"Why? I have you." She kissed him lightly, pushing in farther and farther per the second with her tongue against his lips.

"Have a good day at school, honey!" Kirsten tapped the hood, signal for Holly to move her mouth away.

"Bye, Mrs. Cohen!"

"Holly." Kirsten nodded, walking back into the house. Holly groaned.

"Why doesn't she like me? Moms are _supposed_ to _like_ me. Dads are supposed to be impressed by me; moms are supposed to like me. Se-eth." Holly widened her eyes, but Seth just shrugged, ignoring the invitation to kiss her again.

"I dunno. I don't think she likes me that much either, if that helps."

Holly rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding? She _worships_ you. She thinks I'm not good enough for you."

"She's just my mother. It doesn't matter to me."

"Right. You love her to death too. Duh."

"Let's just go, Holly. We can't change her feelings."

"Can you talk to her?"

"I can try."

"Try _hard_."

Seth shrugged, his arm slipping back to his side from behind Holly's head rest. She sighed again, loudly, so she could be sure he heard her, and pulled out of the driveway.

"Hey, Seth, man!" Brad came colliding into him, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"Chill, Brad. You cool?"

"Yeah, man. How was summer?"

"Since last Wednesday? Pretty fine." Seth cracked a grin and Brad mimicked it exactly.

"Right, dude, it's good to see you 'gain, though."

"Same here."

Brad kept grinning as he walked backwards, knocking into a girl walking behind him. He spun around, the grin disappearing from his face.

"Watch it, dyke."

"Sorry." Summer ducked her head, her cheeks nearly exploding.

"You got fat."

"What?"

"Over the summer. You gained weight. It hurts just to look at you now."

"Oh. Okay." Summer started to walk away, but Brad grabbed her arm.

"But hey! You got boobs! Congratulations."

"I...have to go to class."

"Took you a _while_. But look! Little Summer Roberts is finally a woman."

"Brad..."

"Maybe sometime you wanna do somethin. Just you...me...a backseat."

"I..."

"Kidding, chick. Get your panties out of a twist. You're such a freak."

Summer nodded and started to walk away.

"Hey, Cohen, look! She's got an ass too. I hope you make a comic book club member _very_ happy, Summer."

"Hey, Brad, I'm in that." Seth Cohen spoke.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, dude. Like you'd need _any_ ass after Holly."

"Yeah. Right." Seth nodded. "See you later."

Brad nodded and thumped him on the back. "Catch you later, Cohen."

"Yeah, Holly's doing a thing for the beginning of school. Tonight. See you."

"Aight, Seth. Doubt I'll see _you_, though. The beach house...Nice job, Cohen." Brad winked. Seth shook his head.

"You're such an ass."

Brad grinned with his lip in his mouth and nodded. "Amen, brother."

Seth rolled his eyes and walked off, Holly's arm suddenly around his waist.

"Hey, babe. What's your first period?"

"AP Biology."

"Damn you. I'll see you later though, okay?"

"Okay."

She bit her lip and leaned up to kiss him softly on the mouth. After a second or two, he pushed her back down, off her tip-toes, and smiled.

"Later."

She nodded and let him walk off.

Summer didn't like Brad's hands on her. He did it as a joke, but they always seemed to linger a little too long. It didn't feel right. And he didn't have to do it front of Seth. She dealt with all of it, but not in front of Seth. It was like Brad _knew_ or something. But it wasn't like he could know about crushes Summer hadn't told anyone except for her plastic horse she'd had since she was seven.

She did like him pointing out her ass in front of Seth, though. She knew he had looked, Holly or no Holly. And it wasn't like she had just 'gotten' them, either; she just got sick of the clothes she used to wear, and her dad had money again, so...Seth Cohen looked.

She had been ten when she realized guys didn't have cooties. And there was one cute, sweet, caring, perfect guy who fed the squirrels with her when he thought no one was looking. As she had gotten older, she dreamed of doing more than feeding the squirrels with him, but then Holly Fischer had come around at the end of last year, and he had been off limits even in her dreams.

She walked into her biology class and was about to wave at Marissa when Marissa's eyes left hers and went to Chad, Luke's BFF, just walking in. So, she couldn't sit with Marissa, no matter how much Marissa said she wasn't ashamed to be seen with her.

There was a girl with blonde hair that Summer had never seen before sitting in the back, and so she walked over.

"Hey, is this seat taken?"

The girl's eyes flicked up, shrugging. "It is now."

"Thanks." Summer let her bag drop into the seat next to her, tapping her hands on the table. "I'm Summer, are you new here?"

"Uh, yeah. Anna."

Summer nodded, opening her mouth, but suddenly shutting it when the tall boy with dark brown curls came over.

"Anna! Hey, you look great. How was it?" Seth wrapped his arm around the blonde, a huge grin covering his lips.

"Amazing. I can't believe you didn't come with me."

"I wanted to, you know that. Holly just...yeah, you know."

"I know."

"It's good to see you back, though. Tahiti must agree you." His eyes glided up her legs, and she giggled.

"I guess, huh? So how's the wife?"

"She's...exactly the same."

"And how are you?"

"Good. I'm good. I'll see you around, okay?"

"Unless you sit your ass right here, and catch up with your lover." Her voice dropped on the last word, a giggle escaping her mouth again.

Seth laughed. "Um...yeah, okay. So you have to tell me everything."

And they fell into a conversation with such ease that only best friends could. And Summer was left just sitting, staring, suddenly very aware of how orange the shirt she was wearing was. Especially when Seth Cohen's eyes shifted to her neckline, maybe by accident, maybe not.

So Anna wouldn't be her friend. She just had Marissa. Except she didn't really. Just when it was convenient. On her way out of biology, however, said Marissa's hand fell on her arm.

"Roberts, you look cute. How was your summer?"

"Fine. How are you?" Summer pushed away the question she wanted to ask, and put a smile on instead.

"Good. I haven't seen you in, like, a month. What are you doing after school?"

"Nothing, why?"

"We should do something."

"Aren't you going to Holly Fischer's party?"

"Oh. Right. Damn, um, you can come with me."

"No, that's okay."

"Yeah, come on. It's your school too. They're _your_ classmates too."

"But they probably don't want me there, so..."

"Come on, Roberts, I insist."

"Marissa..."

"Please? Seth will be there..."

"With his girlfriend."

Marissa waved her hand. "Holly's not a girlfriend to anyone."

"Marissa..."

"Doesn't matter what you say, cause you're going anyway. You have a bathing suit?"

"Yes, I have a bathing suit; we live in California, Marissa."

"Right. Wear it. I'll pick you up at seven." Marissa winked and walked away, Luke's face smiling at her from across the hall.

Summer sighed, seeing the question 'why do you talk to her' on Luke's lips from all the way across the hall. Yeah, party with these people. That would be fun.

She stood in front of her mirror for almost an hour, readjusting the strap on the orange, slightly muted bikini. She looked at her stomach, hoping that Brad wasn't right. She had been working out all summer; she _wasn't_ fat. She _could_ wear a bikini in front of Seth Cohen. Summer just sighed and pulled a black tee shirt over her bikini and waited outside for Marissa.

"Hey, Mom? I'm going to Holly's with Ryan." Seth shouted up the stairs, pushing up the sleeves on his white and blue dress shirt.

"Okay, honey, not too late. And don't drink."

"We'll be home by three."

"Are you sure you can't get home a little earlier?"

"Mom, please?"

"Fine. Sorry. Just don't get in trouble."

"We won't. Come on, man." Seth patted Ryan's back and followed him out to the Range Rover. Ryan wasn't fitting in like he should. The only reason he was going to this party was because Seth told him to, and anything Seth wanted to happen did. He just wasn't finding it easy, this whole Chino to Newport thing. The Cohens seemed to think it was working out fine, however.

Seth parked in front of the house, the party already in full swing. Holly was waiting for him on the driveway.

"_There_ you are! I was beginning to think you were standing me up." She smiled and threw an arm around Seth's neck, pulling him in for a kiss. He tilted his head up, though, so she couldn't reach. She went back to the ground, her face hurt.

"Yeah, well, I told you I was going to be late."

"Yeah, right. I know. Is something wrong, Cohen?"

"Nope. Nothing. Let's go in. Come on, Ryan."

"Hi, Ryan." Ryan saw Holly's face and felt like he should feel bad. He knew the things Seth said about Holly when she wasn't around. And he thought she might be able to guess what they were.

"Hey Holly."

He walked into the party behind the 'happy' couple and parked himself beside the beer tap, noticing Summer Roberts nearby the beer too.

She hadn't been drinking a lot. Just since Marissa had ditched her. Summer had taken off her tee shirt after two beers and was smiling at people after four.

Seth danced with Holly for five minutes when he lost all interest. It was lame to see her differently after talking to his mother two days ago, but it was still the way it was. She was...just dumb. Maybe the fact that he'd never really been attracted to her mind helped too. He needed to go find Ryan.

He walked outside, seeing Ryan with a cup in his hand, watching some girl leaning against the railing.

"Hey, Ryan. Who's the chick?"

"That's Summer Roberts."

Seth looked again. The second time, he recognized the dark brown hair and white fingernails. "Dude, what did she _do_?"

"What do you mean?"

"Since when was she...hot?"

Ryan shrugged. "Don't know man. I still am new here."

"Right. Well, believe me. She never looked like _that_ before."

"Watch the slobber, dude. Go say hi."

"She doesn't know me."

"Introduce yourself. Get some time away from Holly."

Seth nodded, walking over even before Ryan finished his sentence.

"Hey, you're in my biology class, right?" He offered the girl a small grin, his hair flopping in his eyes.

"Uh, yeah." When she realized he was talking to her, Summer pushed her hair out of her face and smiled back.

"Have you ever seen the ocean from here? At night? It's gorgeous." He cocked his head towards the water, and Summer blushed.

"Um, yeah, okay." She downed the beer in her hand and smiled widely at him. "Sure."

He smiled back, and took her hand on the way down the stairs. He looked back at Ryan with a grin. Ryan just shook his head.

Summer was trying to push the drunken, giddy smile off her face. She had to be _cool_. Yeah, he was touching her, and _yeah_, he looked like he did. But he was just a guy. Just. A. Guy. Even when he was smiling at her like that. Even when they reached the black water and he looked at her with huge eyes. Even when he was leaning towards her, he was just a...

Seth slipped his hands into the dark, messy hair. It wasn't messy then, but it would be messy when he was done with it. Her lips were soft underneath his, but didn't seem to understand when his tongue grazed them over and over again, but he really needed this. A tiny moan came between her lips, her right knee slightly bending backwards. His hands slipped down her back and rested on her waist, thumbing the waistband of her skirt. He touched her lips with his tongue one more time, pushing harder when her lips didn't move, and finally getting his tongue inside her mouth. She nearly fell down. In fact, she did buckle at the knees, but his hands slipped even farther down, picking her up by the ass. Her legs wouldn't wrap around his waist like Holly's always did, though, so he dropped her after a while.

"Seth...don't you...have a...girlfrien..." Summer gasped as his lips crushed against her clavicle.

"Yeah," he mumbled against her skin.

"Oh." She should've stopped him; she was about to stop him, but his mouth went back to hers, and his hands were so warm on her shoulders, and she was starting to feel cold air wafting from the water, so she could get hypothermia or something if she moved away from the warm warmth of Seth Cohen.

Even though she didn't need the support, Seth's hands were still on her ass, slowly moving upward, pushing her skirt higher up. He groaned loudly when his hand finally stopped once it reached the bottom half of her bikini. Her eyes snapped open, watching his closed eyes as he kissed her. His tongue was sweet and soft and warm, and she hoped he couldn't tell that this was only her second kiss, even though the first one kind of didn't count. Her hand fell down off his shoulder, staying on his chest, barely touching a button. He pulled one hand out from under her skirt, holding her hand right above the top button, moving her fingers so that she undid it. That hand then went to the back of her bikini top, playing with the strings. She pulled open another button, and suddenly felt him move. He was laying her down in the slightly damp sand at his girlfriend's beach party. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. _Girlfriend_.

It didn't work. She still wasn't resisting. She was actually unbuttoning his shirt faster. That wasn't stopping, which was what she should've been doing. Finally she got the last button, not sure exactly what he wanted her to do next. He sat up slightly and shook his arms out of the shirt, bringing them back down to her neck and over her breasts. The one hand that had been groping her ass went to her back again, tugging at the string that was now wet from the sand.

"Seth...wait." Summer finally found the difference between her head and her mouth and touched his wrist against her side.

"What?"

"We shouldn't...do this here. You know? It's your girlfriend's party, and you don't even know me, and I don't know you, and your friends might come looking for you soon, and shouldn't you..."

"Summer. No one's going to come here. I promise." He smiled at her and pulled harder at the string on her back.

"Seth..." She was about to protest further when his fingers finally finished and her bikini top came loose. He pulled the top up, bunching it around her neck and letting his lips fall to the skin between her breasts. She bit her lip, but moaned anyway. He wouldn't allow her to talk, and...well, when it came to _this_, she couldn't really be in charge.

"Summer..." Seth murmured against her skin, letting his hands fall down to her back again, pushing, so that her untanned breasts against his bare, dark chest. Summer gasped, and let her eyes completely close. She was finally starting to wonder if he was drunk too. Her leg was lying between his two legs, and she couldn't say she wasn't relieved to feel that he was actually _really_ into this.

And suddenly the warmth was gone. Summer opened her eyes and pulled down her bikini top as quickly as possible.

"What the _hell_ are you doing? With _her_?" Holly shoved Seth's bare chest, but he just rolled his eyes.

"Holly, calm down."

"Calm _down_? What the hell are you doing? What were you _going_ to do? You're such an asshole, Seth Cohen!"

"Whatever." Seth held out his hand to Summer, helping her to her feet and glaring at Holly, before he walked towards the house.

Summer was about to follow his trail when Holly and her friends stepped in front of her.

"All right, bitch, what do you think you're doing?"

"I was...going to go home."

"I don't think so." Holly shoved her shoulder much harder than she had touched Seth.

"I just..."

"You know that he's my _boyfriend_? We're dating. Comprehende? I know you wouldn't understand the whole 'boyfriend' concept with _your_ history, but when someone has a boyfriend, you have to back. Off."

"Holly, I just want to go home."

"Uh, no. You do not say my name. You do not say _his_ name, and you definitely do not say my name, slut."

"I'm not a slut."

"Uh, what whore, I didn't hear you there."

"I'm not a whore either."

Holly gestured wildly behind her. "Remember that guy you were basically _fucking_? My boyfriend. Mine. You had no right to even look at him, let alone _touch_ him. I'm sorry, but that is _not_ how it's _done_ in Orange County!"

"_He_ touched _me_."

"Yeah. And he's _my_ boyfriend."

"He didn't seem to remember." Summer slightly smiled, and Holly burst.

"Stupid slut!" She launched herself forward and tackled Summer to the ground. Summer lay there for a few seconds, taking the punches. She couldn't believe she was actually being _hit_ by a girl. Then, she realized it was going to stop. This wasn't like when her step-mom came home drunk and slapped her before bursting into tears and running out of the house. Holly was still hitting her. Punching her. And it hurt. It wasn't just a numbing like how it felt when Lara struck her. This kept going. This wasn't real. But she couldn't just take it. _Holly Fischer _was calling her a cunt. Yeah, couldn't take that even if she tried.

So she hit her back. She pushed her off of her stomach and kicked her thigh. She kicked it again. And there was a light bruise showing up on Holly's perfect thigh. It looked good. So Summer was done. Holly'd gone down; she wasn't on top of her calling her names anymore. Summer looked back at her, thinking she should go help her up, and she was about to, when all of Holly's minions jumped on her back, screaming they would "break her, bitch."

She couldn't hit them all. They were too heavy. And Summer was going down.

"Hey, man? Let's go, okay? I'm done with this." Seth clapped Ryan on his shoulder.

"Uh, why, man?" Ryan spun around.

"Holly's just...yeah, well, she's done anyway, and I think she knows it."

"Where's Summer?"

"She's out there somewhere. I thought she was behind me, but she must've seen Marissa Cooper or something."

"Where's Holly?"

"She saw me and Summer, so...she's probably still out there."

"With Summer?"

Seth shrugged. "I think Summer left."

"What if she didn't?"

"Then...she'd be...with Holly."

"Yeah, and Holly will probably be really sweet to her."

Seth thought about it for a second, looked to the sand again, and groaned. "Let's go."

He and Ryan headed back down the beach, to see something straight out of the Girls Gone Wild series. A pile of brunettes, blondes, dark hair, light hair...everything. Hitting anything that moved. Seth sighed, moved forward, and grabbed two girls by their shoulders. Ryan grabbed another two, two girls remaining.

One of them was blonde. The other had red hair. Seth, with a firm hold on the two girls, looked around for Holly. Brunette, blonde, but definitely not Holly with him, two dark haired girls with Ryan. There she was. She was actually lying off to the side on the ground, propped up on her two elbows, watching him, a few bruises, but no breath lost.

"Holly, what the hell? What if they killed each other?"

"Seth, what the hell? I thought I was the one you were supposed to care about?"

"So you think you should just let your best friends and some innocent girl tear each other apart?"

"No, that's you." Holly nodded towards Summer and a redhead still going and it.

"Goddammit." Seth let the girl in his right hand fall to the crook in his elbow and grabbed the redhead off of Summer too. Summer sprang right to her feet, panting heavily. Her cheeks deepened at least five shades of red as she mumbled a tiny 'thanks' under her breath before running as quickly away as she possibly could.

Seth exhaled with the smallest groan under his breath before thrusting off both the girls and walking off back towards the house. Ryan let his girls go a little more gently, looked at the sob about to explode on Holly's face, and left before Holly completely embarrassed herself in front of him. He probably didn't want to hear what she had to say about Seth, either.

Ryan found another strip of beach, away from the house, away from the party, and he heard the girl sounds before he saw the actual girl. It was hiccupping, distressed, totally ruined, wrecked, sobs, which were trying to stay quiet but failing miserably.

"Summer?"

The girl's face turned around, her cheeks completely ruined, and her eyes looking like raccoon's.

He sat down next to her, not too close, but rested a hand awkwardly on her back.

"What are you doing here?" She turned her face away from him so he wouldn't see the complete failure of her waterproof mascara.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Ryan. Atwood? I'm Seth's..."

"I know who you are."

"Oh. This? This is nothing. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Fine."

"Yup. Thanks for asking. I should be going." She started to get up, but fell back down, still refusing to look at him.

"I'm sorry about...Seth. If he hurt your feelings, or, you know, if Holly...hurt you."

"I'm fine. I just hope they're okay. Rage blackouts..." She shook her shoulders in a nearly disbelieving laugh and a chill. "I'm fine." She looked towards the water, Ryan able to glimpse the streaks on her face imprinted by her arms. "No. I'm not." She looked closer his direction at some fixed point behind his head.

"It's...okay." Ryan's hand started to move, trying to be reassuring.

"I'm so stupid. I think it means something, but it always means nothing. It never means something, and it never will. Why do I keep _doing_ this to myself? It never ends up good, and I'm _so_ _stupid_."

"You're not stupid. You're just...misled."

"By people I shouldn't let myself be led at all by. It's so retarded and unnecessary, and-and retarded, and _stupid_, and sometimes I just..." The tears were seeming to stop, but her face was looking so utterly and completely pathetic, that Ryan decided it would've been better if she was still crying. "I don't know. Something has to be _wrong_ with me." She shoved her face into his tee shirt, no sounds coming out, but he could feel a damp area growing on his chest.

But as soon as it came, she was gone, wiping her eyes smoothly and calmly, smoothing out her hair, and realizing she was in front of him in nothing but a bikini top and a skirt.

"I must've left my shirt back there. I should...go...get it." The thought passed over her face, and Ryan could see the crimson coming back to her face when she remembered what was back there.

"You know what? I'll get it for you."

"Oh. You don't have to."

"It's no problem. What's it look like?"

"Just...black tee shirt."

"All right. I'll be back."

"Thanks."

He nodded and smiled with one side of his face. She was sweet. She didn't deserve most of this. She needed someone to help her.

Ryan found her tee shirt, abandoned with Holly, her minions, or Seth around. He grabbed it and jogged back to Summer, standing up with her face almost fixed.

"Thank you." She smiled and took the shirt.

"No problem." Ryan's brow furrowed, but he ignored it. "And you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. I'll see you sometime." Summer flashed another smile and walked away, pulling on her shirt as she walked away.

Ryan sighed, rubbing his head slightly, before walking back towards the house to find Seth and tell him how much he really hurt that girl.


	2. The Mother

_Ugh, I realize the events are a little off, but this is based around Seth and Summer, so I can't go through every episode._

"It's the kickoff carnival, Summer, and I don't _care_ what some guy did to you; this is important to me, and I _really_ want you there. Can I try this on?" Marissa held a shirt in front of her chest, raising an eyebrow to Summer.

"Uh, yeah, Marissa. But why do you want me there so badly? You'll be with your friends, and I...won't."

"But Summer, don't you want to admire my _beautiful_ work? _Please_? And it's not like you'll never have to see him again. We're going to Colorado for Thanksgiving break, and he and that Ryan dude promised to give us a ride."

"What? Us?"

"Didn't I tell you? We're going to get a ride from them."

Summer ignored the fact that Marissa _never_ wanted to do things with her that other people would see, let alone Seth Cohen. "Why can't you drive us?"

"Uh, because. My mom's being a total bitch and taking away my car privileges for, like, until January."

"But Thanksgiving break isn't for a while. We can probably get a ride somewhere else."

"But Seth offered."

"But it's months away. When did you talk to anyone about this?"

"Sometime in lunch. That's unimportant. The important thing is you have to get over this fear of Seth Cohen, face it, and get over it. Wait, I said that already. Whatever, you get me?"

"Marissa, I don't know."

"You have to know, because you're going to that carnival tonight. That can be step one of the Seth Cohen Get Over Plan." Marissa squinted at her own words and at the reflection in the mirror of the shirt that was very obviously too big for her.

Summer scrunched her nose too and laughed when Marissa started laughing. "Okay, so the title is negotiable, but you get me?" Marissa giggled.

Summer shrugged. "I guess."

"So..." Marissa pulled the top over her head and put back on her tank top. "What did happen with him anyway? The whole school's talking about it. I heard he and Holly might be over because of you, you skank." Marissa playfully pushed her shoulder and showed one of her first real grins to Summer.

Summer smiled, but just shrugged again, pulling up her leg. "We just...kissed."

"Ha. Yeah, sure. I heard a much different story from Chad, Brad, Tamara, even Holly talked to me for like five minutes before she burst into tears."

"It was...I mean, I don't remember a lot of it."

"Bullshit, you remember everything. Tell me; who else would you tell?" Marissa, obviously much more comfortable than Summer, asked, still laughing.

"It's just...kind of embarrassing. No matter what he is now, he _was_ with Holly then. And I was kind of...drunk."

"It's okay; she kind of deserves someone cheating on her for once. You know Seth was almost dating someone else when he started going out with her?"

Summer just shrugged, looking down at the magazine of perfect, beautiful, sexy girls and their perfect guys that wanted nothing else but them.

"I'm bored, dude." Seth fell down onto Ryan's bed, dropping his head on Ryan's thighs.

Ryan squinted his eyes and yawned, rotating off his side to sit up. "What time is it?"

"Dunno. Just had breakfast." Seth rolled down the bed, stopping before he reached the edge.

Ryan picked up the clock on his bedside table. 7:48. He threw the clock at Seth. "Dude, it's a Saturday."

"I'm not tired."

"So I can't be tired?"

"Let's go somewhere."

"Where? At eight in the morning?"

"I don't know. Somewhere. You just want to stay here?"

"And sleep? At eight in the morning? Yes, maybe."

"Come on, Ryan. We'll go get something to eat. Mexican. Tacos. Imagine it: picante, salsa verde, jalapeno...sounds like quite the fiesta, huh? Huh?" Seth rolled up, grinning and cocking his head.

Ryan groaned and rolled over. Seth groaned louder and pulled the comforter off, bringing it out of the pool house with him. "Come on, Ryan, you're gonna have fun."

"Come on, Roberts, it'll be good for you. Get some color." Marissa pulled her tee shirt over her head and slipped on her sunglasses, reclining in her beach chair.

Summer watched the lack of movement in Marissa's stomach, wondering how she did it. She was the one always telling Summer that she was eating like a chick. And Marissa was the one who always looked like...that.

"Summer?" Marissa pulled down her glasses onto her nose.

"Yeah?" Summer pulled off her shirt too, turning her head to Marissa, one of her pony tails hitting her face.

Marissa grinned. "You look so cute. I love your bathing suit."

Summer glanced down at her red and white spotted bikini and smiled back at Marissa. "Thanks."

Marissa's hand grazed Summer's, and Summer finally exhaled. Marissa _did_ want to be her friend, even with what people said. She was hanging out with Summer more and more, ditching plans with Tamara, or Luke, or Gracie for Summer. It meant something.

Seth pushed against the back of his chair onto the back two legs. He was about to bite into his burrito, but shook his head. "We need salsa." He rolled his head to look up at Ryan, flashing a quick smile.

Ryan looked back at him, his lack of smile very obvious. Seth cocked his head the over way, sticking out his bottom lip the slightest bit. Ryan shook his head. "I'm not getting your salsa. I'm not Brad."

Seth's smile vanished. "Yeah, that's true. That dude is like my man servant. I bet I could get him to, like, cheat with Holly for me. Then I could dump her."

"You guys are still together?"

"Yeah, I guess. Technically. She's like a leech; she can just never let go."

"Suddenly you didn't like her. What happened?"

"She's not exactly...layered, Ryan." Seth's grin came back.

"I didn't know you liked her for her...layered-ness."

"No, not really. She's just...way...dumb, and we don't have anything in common. But it got boring. And the sex wasn't even all that great." Seth nodded his head wisely, and started to walk towards the salsa.

"Hey, Seth!" Marissa jogged up to the two boys, pulling Summer behind her.

"Hey, Cooper." Seth nodded, smiling for a second in Summer's direction.

"Hey...Brian, right?" Marissa smiled at Ryan, making his cheeks faintly blush.

"Uh, no. Ryan."

"Oh." Marissa nodded. "Well, I obviously know nothing about you, so we should...catch up. Seth, where you going?"

He pointed at the cart. Marissa smiled.

"Oh, great. Summer, go with him. Get me something...tasty." Marissa turned her smile to Summer, making her cheeks almost explode.

"Uh, Mariss, I think he's okay by himself."

"Uh, you can come. Help. Ryan likes his salsa in plentiful amounts." Seth smiled again, walking away towards the cart.

"Oh. Okay." Summer ran after Seth, sending a glare back at Marissa.

Marissa's smile was growing. She turned towards Ryan, and it slowly disappeared.

"So...you're from Long Beach?"

"Uh, no. Chino."

"Chino? Ugh...I mean, not that that's a bad thing." Marissa shifted uncomfortably in her chair, leaning her cheek against her palm.

Summer was watching Seth get all excited over salsas.

"Jalapeno: a personal favorite, I don't know if you're a fan, but you seriously cannot go wrong. It's spicy; it's marinated; it's hot; it's got vegetables. Now, I understand the lumpiness makes it easily passed for, say, salsa verde, but people don't understand that sometimes the simple classics can beat any...well, anything green. Yeah, right there." Seth leaned his arm over her arm, picking up the spoon and filling the little plastic cup way over what Summer had seen other people do. He actually overfilled it, leaving a little spilled on her arm.

"Oh, sorry about that."

Before she could say anything, even accept his apology, he leaned over and licked her arm. "Mmm...this stuff is so good."

And that was it. He didn't acknowledge any sort of even recognition. She could've been anyone. Not anything to him. He probably didn't care, or didn't remember her. Maybe he was smashed and saw her as dark hair and a bikini. Maybe he still thought she was the freak his best friend, the man servant, always made fun of. How could he even _talk_ to someone like Brad for more than five seconds? He could because she didn't even know him. She didn't know he wasn't any better than Brad. She had just been in love with him since, like, ever. That didn't mean anything. What was even worse was that she was answering questions in her head while he didn't even care and had, in fact, left her staring at the salsas, wondering what was wrong with salsa verde.

Summer sat cautiously down across from Seth, watching him eat. And eat. And eat. She hadn't said two words since she had seen him. She was pathetic. She was sad. She had no reason to sit here even at all. This was dumb. She was being dumb.

"So, Seth, I never did ask, did Kirsten totally flip about Chad's rager last summer?" Marissa sipped her water.

"Uh, yeah, at first, but I got Brad to fix the Rover, and, I mean, she's never really stayed mad at me for that long. I've got her wrapped around my finger."

"Oh, come on, it's kind of the other way around, dude." Ryan laughed, biting into his burrito.

Seth gasped. "He speaks! And he's wrong. I got her right where I want her."

"She still runs your life; be honest, dude."

"Name one thing I've done that I didn't want to because of my mother."

"Hate Holly." Ryan bit in a little further.

Seth put down his Coke, and shook his head. He leaned in a little closer to Ryan, and tried to lower his voice. "I don't hate Holly."

"That's bullshit, and you know it, and Holly knows it, and I think Summer might have a guess too." Ryan looked up, directly at Summer. She started blushing again, shifting her line of sight around to all three of them.

"All right, so you know everything about my life now."

"You sure as hell don't like her."

"Why are you doing this now?"

"It's because of Kirsten. Kirsten told you she was dumb and that you deserved better. So you lost interest."

Seth raised his eyebrows and shook his head again. "If you say so."

How could he _do_ that? How could he _not_ care? Summer exhaled every question that troubled her about Seth Cohen, shook her head, apologized to Marissa, and excused herself. He didn't care about _anything_. He was just...he thought he was the coolest, most perfect guy in the world, and she had used to think so too. He didn't deserve what people said about him. He soaked it all up and he was such a...momma's boy. She'd seen him at those Newpsie events; she used to watch him everywhere. He would flirt with forty year old women with a duck of his head and those ridiculously effective dimples.

Marissa was worried about her. Marissa was probably one of the only ones who knew that Summer had never really been interested in a guy except for Seth Cohen. Marissa was watching Summer's dream fall into her lap and end up being a nightmare all the while.

Maybe it was better that way.

Nearly half an hour later, Marissa sat silently next to Summer in the wet sand. She used to always complain about it, but Summer had always liked it. She could watch everything.

"Sum, if you don't want to go to the carnival...I mean, I understand."

"Right."

"So you aren't going to go?"

"I don't know."

"Seth's not even sure if he's going to be there at all."

"Okay."

"Because he doesn't want to run into Holly."

"He's her boyfriend. There's no reason he shouldn't run into her."

"I don't think he's going to be her boyfriend for long."

Summer shrugged, letting her legs fall down. "Yeah, well, I don't care. I don't like Seth Cohen."

Marissa rose an eyebrow.

"I don't. He's...Seth Cohen. And I'm...not that kind of person. That's all."

"Right. So you don't like him, because..."

"Because I have no chance with some guy like that, so it would be a waste of time."

"Oh, of course. It wouldn't be practical."

"Exactly."

"Because everyone bases their love lives around whether or not it makes sense."

"I don't want to get hurt."

"But, what if..."

"Marissa, it's okay. You can stop pretending. I don't need you to be around if you don't want to be. Go...be popular, or something." Summer jogged off, leaving Marissa to get her skirt dirty in the sand.

Seth stretched the newspaper across his chest, trying to keep it above his eyes without getting up. Ryan walked in, turning his face horizontal with Seth's.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you." Seth read another sentence and rolled up.

"What's up?"

"I'm not going to break up with her."

"What? Who?"

"Holly."

"Why not?"

"It's too hard."

"Hard to do what?"

"Just stop something that's been going on for a long while. Everything should just...go back to normal around here."

"You guys haven't been going out that long."

"But why should I break up with her?"

"Because you don't like her?"

"I don't _not_ like her."

"That's why you want to spend every second of your day with her?"

"That's not the point. She's not a bad girlfriend. I mean, she's not my best friend, but as, like, a girlfriend...she's okay."

"As a trophy wife."

"Ew, I'd never _marry_ her."

"But she is a trophy. A status."

Seth shrugged, standing up. "We're just juniors. I don't have to date looking for potential wives."

"But if you did, you wouldn't be dating Holly."

"I don't know if I'd be dating at all."

Seth smiled, patting a hand on Ryan's shoulder, and started to jog out of the pool house.

"What about Summer?"

Seth stopped. "What about her?"

"_If_ you were looking for potential wives, would you be dating Summer?"

Seth turned around, thought for a second, and shrugged. "Probably not. I don't really know her."

He closed the door, closing his eyes for just a second, and walking over to the main house. Kirsten was in the kitchen, smiling at him over a cup of coffee.

"Hey, babe, what are you doing today?"

"Dunno."

"Want to spend the day with your old mother?"

Seth scanned Holly's face through his brain and smiled. "Sure, why not?"

Summer leaned against one of the brightly colored stands, picking pieces of the pink cloud in front of her. Marissa was giggling with Luke's arm around her waist, seemingly taking Summer's advice. Summer wasn't good for her reputation after all. People were looking at her though, and Summer felt self conscious, no matter how hard she tried not to. They were all whispering about how that girl over there broke Holly Fischer's heart and how Seth Cohen must be on drugs, or something.

And then he came walking over. He had to walk over whenever she was feeling the worst about herself. Brad was growing out his hair; it looked horrible. He thought he was such a surfer dude.

"Hey, Roberts."

Summer crossed her arms over her chest, ducking her head. "Hi."

"You okay?"

Her eyes darted up, and Brad wasn't smiling. His face was just looking down at her, his hands shoved into his pockets, his eyes staring at her eyes.

"What do you want?"

"You look upset. Are you upset?"

Summer shifted uncomfortably against the soft cotton of her shirt. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" He stepped closer, brushing the dark blue fabric of his jacket against her bare arm.

"Yes. Thanks for asking." She put on a fake smile and looked away. Brad smiled and took a bit of her cotton candy.

"Because...if you wanted to talk, or something, you know I'm here."

"Really."

He nodded. "I never meant it...all that stuff in school. You know that."

"I do?"

"We're friends, right, Roberts?" His thumb was brushing her arm. It made her shiver.

"Uh, yeah, of course, Brad. I love it when my friends shove me across the hall. My favorite. So, glad we could work this out. You and me? Best friends. Best friends don't touch, though." She smiled even wider, even faker, and shook his finger off of her. "Bye Brad."

She shivered again, trying to push down the goosebumps he gave her. He was so...ew.

Summer watched Marissa and Luke standing by the ferris wheel, giggles over their faces. They must love each other. That must be what love looked like. Perfect, beautiful, comfortable, happy. And as they walked away from the ferris wheel, Summer wondered if they weren't in love, who really was?

Summer stood in the nonexistent line for the ferris wheel, waiting for the guy to notice her and let her on.

"Yeah, hey, dude, could we get on?" Ryan Atwood walked up behind her tapping on the guy's shoulder.

"Yeah, of course, sorry about that." Ryan took her hand and pulled her into the box next to him.

"Thanks." She smiled at him, and he nodded.

"No problem. Why are you here alone?"

"I came with Marissa, but...well, Luke happened, and I'm not into watching them make out."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, well, Luke doesn't like me much either. So glares aren't my thing either."

"A wise choice."

"So why are you here alone?"

"Um, well, Seth's supposed to be showing up soon. He told me to meet him here."

"Oh. Out with the girlfriend?"

"No, actually, the mom."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

They got to the top of the wheel, Ryan's eyes suddenly, quickly shutting.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing. Just...heights."

"So why'd you go on the ferris wheel?"

"You were going to go alone."

Summer laughed, letting her hand fall on top of Ryan's. He opened the eye closer to her and smiled, mimicking the grin on her face, before closing his eyes again.

Once they reached the bottom, Summer leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for the ride." She stood up and walked back towards one of the carts, her eyes catching Seth Cohen's as he walked in. He was looking from her to Ryan shuffling off of the ferris wheel, and she actually found the tiniest smile to give him. It made him bite his tongue, shake his head, and smile, obviously disbelieving that Summer Roberts was trying to play him.

_Yeah, so I know not a lot happened here, but the drama's being set. And wow, I'm really glad so many of you liked it. I was thinking about making this a story for my eyes only, but I'm really glad to interest you guys. Keep reading._


	3. The Docks

Dark hair spilled down the nearly white shoulders. Her shoulders were reflecting the moon's opaque, white, clean surface, but the moon was barely visible. Her lips were parted; her eyes were searching for an answer he didn't have. Her hands were in the crooks of her bent elbows. She looked so desperate, so helpless, so vulnerable. Seth had never seen anything like it.

Knock. Seth leaned his head toward the door, yelling "come in!" and putting down his pencil.

The door opened and he shut the notebook as soon as the blonde hair leaned against his comforter.

"Hey." Holly's arms were crossed beneath her cheek as she sat on her knees, looking up at him.

"Hi."

"When are your parents coming home?"

Seth leaned over and realized how pathetic it was that he had been home alone on a Saturday at 8:42.

"Late."

"You want to talk?"

"About what?"

"Us."

Seth tossed his sketchpad onto the ground on the opposite side of his bed. "Holly, do you think you're sounding...endearing? Because you sound like you just came out of a romantic comedy."

"Do you want to be with me anymore? Or not?"

Seth shrugged, creating a tear to roll down Holly's face. His eyes softened, his hand coming to her elbow. "Holly...'

"It's what you want." She started to stand up, but Seth put his hand on the top of her head.

"Don't go."

She lowered herself back to her knees, her eyes looking up at him. They were blue, piercingly blue, and they were waiting for him to tell her he wanted her to stay, forever maybe. Her eyes waited for him to kiss her, to touch so softly against her cheek against the lone tear.

"Holly, we can talk."

She nodded, her eyes going back to their slightly concerned, but light, state. "Talk. Great."

"I don't like people talking about us."

"I know. I hate it. It's just..."

"You don't hate it. You want people talking about you. But I don't think they should be talking about Summer."

"You're worried about Summer Roberts."

"She didn't do anything and suddenly all these guys, guys like Brad, are coming onto her. I don't know if she can handle it."

"Seth, she could've ruined our relationship."

Seth winced slightly, but shook his head. "That's not the point."

"But you said she didn't do anything, and she did."

"I took advantage of her. She was there, and I didn't...it was my fault."

"Why are you sticking up for her? Why do you need me to forgive her? I forgive _you_, baby. That should be all that matters."

"I don't want her to have to deal with crap she doesn't deserve to deal with."

"You don't even know her! How do you get to decide what she deserves?"

"I _don't_ know her. And that's why it's not fair to put her through crap."

Holly exhaled, letting out a tiny groan. "Do you like her or something?"

"I don't know her."

"So why do you care?"

"She's just a person, Holly. She deserves to live her life like she wants to."

Holly fell backwards onto her ass. She leaned her head on her palm, concentrating. "Seth?"

"Yeah."

"Do you love me?"

"Holly..."

"Don't say it's not as simple as that, because it is. Do you love me or not?"

Seth turned his face away from Holly's, and shrugged. She started sobbing again.

"Holly...stop."

"So what have you been doing with me? We, I mean, you, and I, I never knew anything was even wrong! Not until...her."

"What her? Holly, you know no person besides, well, me had anything to do with the fact that I don't love you."

"Then what is it?" Holly's face looked up, her cheeks stained. Seth sighed and wiped the black mascara with his thumb.

"Holly...you don't, you don't even know what love is."

"How do you know?"

Seth traced the black lines in her face, resting his hand underneath her chin. "This just isn't it. It isn't fair for you."

"So...you want to break up?" She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Seth shook his head. "We don't have to."

"But you said you didn't love me."

"Holly, we're not getting married."

"Oh." Holly smiled tentatively. "Right."

Summer lay still, watching the cloths above her move with the wind from her open window. Marissa was supposed to call, because they 'had to do something,' but she was probably held up with the boyfriend. Summer would be better with a boyfriend. Some guy that would be there when she needed him, and would even be there when she didn't. Even someone like Holly could find someone to be mildly happy with. Not that Summer wanted what Holly had, because she was stuck with Seth Cohen, but Holly still had someone to be there.

And Marissa probably wasn't going to call in this decade.

So Summer was alone in a house without even the evil stepmonster to keep her company. She was going out shopping. The wicked witch of the west had more of a life than Summer. That was sad. She would've gone too, if it was anyone but the most beautiful, everything handed to stepmother who, Summer believed, was even a little embarrassed to be seen in public with someone like Summer.

It was ridiculous that she had to go through something like this. She had no real release besides a brief stint with her father dying to take her surfing. Summer wanted some way to spend her time, because as it was, all she did was make up futures for herself and Seth Cohen, and that wasn't healthy.

Seth woke up late, and he wasn't ready to get up either. His arm was cramped, and his legs were twisted over each other. And he was really, really cold. Pushing his eyes open, he tried to roll over, but a weight on his left arm stopped him. A mess of blonde hair flew into his eyes, and this wasn't good.

"Holly?" No answer. "Fuck, Holly." He pulled his wrist out from underneath her chin, rolling her over, and getting out of his bed.

"Mmm...Seth? What?"

"We have school; you have to get up."

"When?"

"Now? Get up." Seth locked the door behind him as he found the bathroom. He splashed what must've been a gallon of water on his face and fell against the wall in front of the sink. He thought about going back to sleep, but already heard the walking of people downstairs who were going to need the bathroom. And he wasn't falling asleep next to Holly. He was too tired to go to school, though. So Holly would leave without anyone seeing, maybe Ryan, but Ryan would keep his mouth shut, and Seth would go off to the beach or something. Maybe get in some sailing on the boat he had abandoned for almost half a year.

Holly got dressed in the same outfit as she had worn the day before, which was sort of a badge of honor when everyone knew you were going out with Seth Cohen. She smiled and kissed his cheek when Seth dropped her off and school, and didn't really notice when he didn't get out with her.

Seth had picked up the habit of sitting in the center of the dock, his legs grazing the water, watching the boyfriends and girlfriends sail into the sun, far enough away so he couldn't see what they wanted to do with the romantic setting. Ever since he had been, like, ten. His grandfather had seen him do it one day and decided that a boy like him needed a boat. So Seth had learned to sail. His boat was small and nothing exciting, but he was proud of it when people asked. It was white with large blue scrawl across the bottom reading "The Lovers' Breeze." He got a bit of crap from people claiming it was a girls' name, but when he got older, he could tell people that it was a girls' boat. He said he used it as a girl magnet, and considering he was Seth Cohen, people believed him.

But sometimes he didn't need to sail. He still just watched the people walking by, young boys and girls holding hands, older boys and girls hiding away to make out. Sometimes people sitting or walking just to think. It fascinated him to no end, so whenever he felt like skipping school, he'd find peace where people couldn't see his face. In fact, they could see nothing but the outline of his body in the sun. It was like playing hide and seek. He could see all of them, but they couldn't see him.

When he saw people he knew, he usually liked to turn around. Kids from school would always come over, laughing and giggling, and going on about things he wasn't in the mood for. He wasn't interested in what they were doing at the water, because it usually was just to tan or flirt. It was the people who were looking at him, even if they couldn't see his face, that he was entranced by. The people that were here everyday, watching the tide come in and waiting for something. Seth was always waiting too.

And then there were the girls. Girls loved the beach, even if they didn't have a guy attached to their sides. He liked to draw them sometimes. The girls that stood on rocks, sat on railings, shyly sat near him on the other side of the dock. Their hair was never done, and they always seemed to know some secret that he could never capture in simple sketches.

But during the morning, there never were that many people, so Summer Roberts standing on the shore, getting her feet wet, stood out. He watched her for a while, wondering if she noticed that he was there at all. She had a pair of headphones on, but at this particular part of beach, no one could hear anything anyway. You just sensed things. She hadn't looked over yet, though. Seth wondered why she wasn't in school. She always seemed dedicated to do well, even if her grades weren't always the best. She always seemed to care. So, even if Brad nearly molested the entire school, she would always stick out. She had the biggest secret of all the girls he would watch take their walks, and Seth Cohen was intent on uncovering it.

He never really talked to the people here. Not unless they talked to him first. But he picked up his sketch pad, and walked towards the beach anyways.

"Hey. Summer, right?"

She finally turned her head and pulled her headphones down, circling her neck. "Yeah. What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

She shrugged and looked back at the water. He walked up next to her and cocked his head.

"You're missing school."

"So are you."

"I'm different."

Summer rolled her eyes. "So I've heard."

Seth entertained a smile and tapped her on the shoulder when she pulled her headphones back on.

"I remember you, if that's what you're thinking."

"Oh thank god, now I can finally rest. Seth Cohen remembers who I am."

"I'm sorry about all of that. At the beach house."

"At Holly's beach house."

"Yeah. Holly."

"Your girlfriend."

"I guess."

Summer turned the volume up. Seth just laughed. "You really don't like me, do you?"

She pulled them off. "What?"

"You think I'm retarded, and self-centered, and...a mama's boy." He raised his eyebrows and waited for her to say something back. "Well, I'm right, aren't I?"

"Well, I guess you're not retarded."

"Oh, zing. That was a good one, Roberts."

She winced slightly at the name Brad called her. Seth noticed. "So now that you've decided I'm worth talking to...what are you doing here?"

"Didn't want to go to school."

"Mmm. Me neither."

"Why would the darling Seth Cohen not want to go to his kingdom?"

"They're all just a joke."

Summer scoffed and shook her head. "Wow, that's really deep of you. I'm really seeing the other side. We can be best friends now."

"I don't want to be your best friend."

"So why talk to me? You haven't for my entire life."

"And that bothers you."

"Frankly, I could care less."

"Oh, of course. That's why you pointed it out."

"I'm just saying that people like you usually have a second motive as to why they want to talk to me. I'm not going to flatter myself and say I give the best conversation, so usually it's something that dicks like you would find amusing."

"No one's around."

"What?"

"No one's around. Why would I want to play a joke on you if we're alone and there's no goon to impress?" He raised an eyebrow, laughed again, and swung his arms and sketchbook around his waist.

She eyed the book, knowing he wanted her to ask, but just ignored it. "Well that was redundant."

He grinned and ducked his head. "When your comeback resorts to grammar, I know I'm starting to win."

"Win what?"

"The right to talk to you. So, you're coming with me and Ryan to Colorado for Thanksgiving break, right?"

"That's the rumor."

"Well, I'm touched that you let Marissa convince you into it."

"Yeah, I'm sure Holly will just love it."

"There comes that name again. Are you, like, obsessed with her or something?"

"No, but you should be."

"Oh, believe me, I am. She is the _perfect_ girl."

"Well, she has bought her way there, hasn't she?"

"Hey, no bashing. You were the one that brought her up."

"I just thought you'd like to talk about your girlfriend."

"She's not really my girlfriend."

"Don't let her hear that."

"I won't. Glad to know you care, though."

"Why should I?"

"Because we're friends now, right? We joked, we laughed, we're b.f.f."

"I thought you didn't want to be my friend."

"I can change my mind."

"Oh of course. You probably don't want to be my friend, though. It'll damage your gorgeous reputation."

"I can risk it."

"Yeah, well, I don't know if I can." She smiled and started to walk away.

"Hey, I didn't say anything. You're the one inventing reasons to hate me."

"I don't hate you. I don't know you."

They were a few feet away, but he extended his hand anyway. "Seth Cohen. If we were friends, I might even tell you that my middle name is Ezekiel."

"Seth Ezekiel Cohen?"

"Yeah, well, my dad's Jewish. He's from the Bronx. My mom was born here though. She's a Nichol."

"Oh, I've heard. Richest Jewish boy in Newport Beach. Destined to the Caleb Nichol fortune and company. Very impressive stuff, Seth Ezekiel."

"Thank you. Summer Roberts, dad's named Neil, stepmom's named Lara, though I doubt you're going to become a plastic surgeon any more than I'm going to go into real estate."

"I have a stalker."

"I'm not a stalker. Just interested."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Something to keep me busy."

"So where do you get all your information?"

Seth stepped closer and grinned. "I googled you."

"Oh, really?"

"Or, you know, I might've just talked to Marissa."

"But that makes less of a story."

"Exactly." She smiled back at his widening grin, but shook her head.

"I feel bad for Holly."

"Why is that?"

"Her boyfriend flirts with freaks."

"I won't tell if you don't." Seth winked, leaned in a bit closer, and patted her on the head.

"Later, Roberts." He grinned one last time and walked toward the parking lots.

Summer waited to hear his engine drift off before she exhaled.

Seth sat on the veranda, listening to Ryan talk about how dumb it was to skip, and how it was pointless, because it wasn't like he had to perform brain surgery or anything, and it was really irresponsible, because his parents would be disappointed. Seth bit into a fry, nodding slightly when he thought he should, and watched the people eat lunch. It wasn't as interesting as strangers at the dock, but they still fascinated him. A girl saw him looking at her, and waved; he nodded back, unsure exactly what her name was.

"Seth, where did you go? Holly was in school."

"Yeah, I know. I just had to think."

"About what? How to sneak Holly out of the house next?" Ryan rolled his eyes.

Seth shook his head, letting his eyes follow Ryan's. "That was a mistake."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure it would've been a much better idea to bring her downstairs and ask Sandy if he had a few extra pancakes."

"That's not what I mean. I don't know why...I wasn't planning on it or anything."

"So, you slept with her."

Seth shrugged again.

"Did you break up with her?"

"No. I never wanted to break up with her."

Ryan gave him a look, and Seth cracked. "Fine. Maybe I did. But what's the point? It won't help anything, and it would just hurt Holly."

"Oh, but not talking to her and fucking her just makes her smile."

"I talked to her."

"About what?"

"She asked if I loved her. And a bunch of shit about Summer."

"What'd you say?"

"I sure as hell didn't tell her I loved her."

"What about Summer?"

"I said it didn't make sense for her to get hurt just because we were fighting. So I asked her to get people to stop talking about her."

"That's not going to work."

"It's better than nothing."

Ryan shook his head. "No. What would be better than nothing would be apologizing to Summer. This is just going to make Holly think you're in love with Summer."

"What makes you such an expert, dude? Where's the one for you? Where's the girl you'd never lead on?"

Ryan shrugged, ignoring Seth's sarcasm. "She's around."

"Well, I just think you're not exactly qualified to giving out women advice when you're, no offense, man, but alone."

Ryan nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Fine, then. I'll shut up."

Seth leaned forward. "No, dude, I didn't mean..."

"You're right. I don't have a girlfriend. I've never met the perfect girl. I was just hoping that maybe you had."

"I think everyone knows that Holly isn't the perfect girl."

"I think...I wasn't talking about Holly." Ryan raised an eyebrow. "But whatever, man, it's your life. We have class." Ryan stood up, patted Seth's shoulder, and walked back into the building. Seth waited for a minute and the followed him.

Anna sat in her biology class, randomly doodling song lyrics on her binder. Seth walked in, and she smiled at him, but he walked by her to a table of five other boys. He smiled briefly at her, turning when more people came in the room. He was leaning on the back legs of his chair, smiling weakly while the boys around him roared. The quiet girl with the dark hair walked in too, looking at Anna for a second, and sitting with some unfortunate looking boy and extremely lanky girl.

Anna watched the entire class, as Seth didn't respond the way the boys thought he was going to, to any of their jokes, but watched the dark haired girl instead, quickly turning his head when she looked towards him. Which was basically all the time. Dumb.

On his way out, Anna grabbed Seth's arm.

"Anna, hey."

"Seth, are you retarded or something?"

"What?" Half of his mouth curled into a grin, trying to look like he thought he was perfect.

"Who's the girl?"

"Who?"

"The brunette. The one you were staring at for the entire class. Samantha, or something."

"Who?" He grinned with his whole mouth, playing dumb.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Whatev. But the Seth Cohen I know didn't stare lustfully at girls in science class and ignore her when she stared back."

"Anna, I don't stare lustfully at high school girls."

"Yeah, I hope not. Holly would just love that."

"Holly doesn't love a lot right now."

"She loves you. For some reason."

"Hey! I'm a catch. But Holly doesn't love me."

"No, but the brunette obviously does. Summer, that's her name. Where's your self respect, Cohen?"

"I have self respect."

Anna nodded. "Right. Well, I just wanted to say that if you want her, you can obviously have her. Didn't she not have a date for cotillion?"

"Yeah. She was going to go with Ryan before you asked him."

"Why was she going to go with him?"

"He volunteered as some sort of white knight for whatever girl needed one."

"Oh. He was cute though. I needed a cute boy to introduce me to Newport Beach."

"And you going with him meant you got to meet me. What a lucky chick." Seth grinned, wrapping an arm around Anna's shoulders and pulling her in for a brief hug. "Now, thanks for the talk, but I gotta go. Peace."

"Peace, bro." She smiled at his descending figure, wondering what Ryan looked like now.

Marissa walked across the hall shoving Seth's arm slightly as she settled on the locker in front of him.

"So."

"Marissa, what are you..."

"Do you like her?"

"Who?"

"Summer."

"What? Why is everyone..."

"You were staring at her. For like all of biology."

"I wasn't staring at anyone."

"She likes you. A lot. So if you _don't_ like her, then you're being a real ass."

"She likes me a lot?"

Marissa shrugged. "She did."


	4. The Roadtrip

_Nothing belongs to me, except marathons of Season One DVD viewing and pathetic marathons of taped season two on VHS. Josh Schwartz is pretty damn cool. Sorry this took a while. It's dedicated to Coach Glick, because he hates it when I call him that._

"Slow down."

"I'm just going eighty."

"In a sixty five zone."

"I said I was gonna get you there right? You want to take the bus instead? Fifteen hour drive with the darling Mr. Glick sweating all over you."

"I wanted a ride, but no one can ski with their head in a dashboard."

"Well, it's always good to try new things."

Summer fell back into her seat, her arms crossed across her chest. Seth mimicked her sigh, rolling his eyes.

Marissa tried to break the silence. "It's ridiculous that our school couldn't just catch a plane there, anyways."

Seth, ignoring Marissa, turned back to Summer. "Just chill. You'll get there, and if you die, then I'll send nice flowers to your parents."

"Thanks, but you think maybe if I died, you wouldn't make it either?"

Seth shrugged. "I'd be able to take it. You just might be too delicate."

"If I die, you better believe I'm taking you down with me."

"Planning on going to hell?"

"I'm going to have to for killing your ass."

Marissa and Ryan in the back seat both sighed, almost syncopated, earning them a glare from Summer.

"Wow, I'm scared. Please be nice." Seth rolled his eyes for the thousandth time in one day.

"Shut up. What the hell is with this music anyway?"

"What the fuck is wrong with Death Cab?"

"They're so over publicized. You think you're all misunderstood because you listen to all the right music."

"They're not over publicized. Just a few t.v. shows. And why does it matter that they have a broad fan base? Who says you have to fit a profile to listen to music?"

"You don't, but you don't have to be a poser either."

"Okay, I'll try to be more like you. Oh, Summer, you're such an idol, how can I become you? Please, help me give up my old ways so I can become just like you. You, who I'm giving a ride for no reason except the goodness of my heart."

"Oh yes, the goodness of your heart. That and the total emptiness of your head."

"Wow, when you're right, you're right. I was stupid to give you a ride, Ryan, Marissa? Say goodbye to Summer."

"What are you doing?" Summer leaned over, putting her hand on top of his on the wheel.

"I'm leaving you at the side of the road. Try hitchhiking. Should be a blast."

"No, stop."

"Get your hand off me."

"Stop spinning the fucking wheel."

"I just have to..."

Marissa leaned her head through. "Seth, stop that, it's dumb."

Ryan yelled, "Dude, watch the road!"

Seth tried to swivel the wheel back to the road, but instead they fell through the thin sand.

"Wow, Seth, your amazing driving actually landed us in the sandiest, seediest motel in the entire state of Nevada. I'm going to seriously get raped tonight." Summer eyes the cot and full bed.

"God, you would be so lucky, Roberts. Any rapist would definitely go for Marissa first."

"Wow, thanks, Cohen." Marissa rolled her eyes, dropping her bags to the floor.

Ryan followed Marissa's lead. "You know, um, I could go find us something quick to eat. It's late for dinner and too early for breakfast."

"No, starving to death would be much better. Maybe then we could go Donner Party and take Summer out." Seth smirked walking straight into the bathroom.

Ryan raised his eyebrows, but shook his head. "You girls want anything?"

Summer shrugged, her hand in the air. Marissa pulled in her lips. "Um, I dunno, I'll go with you, though. I need to see if I can find a drug store."

Ryan nodded, smiling lightly to Summer and holding the door open for Marissa.

Summer sighed for what had to have been the twenty thousandth time that day and fell backwards onto the bed. The comforter was gritty and thick from the steaming weather. She picked it up and threw it onto the cot. The sheet underneath was less hot, but still as sandy. She lay down on the left, slightly shifting to get comfortable.

Seth came out of the bathroom, the edge of his hair damp from motel sink water. He sighed dramatically and fell onto the bed next to her. She eyed him suspiciously, but turned back.

"What?" He was watching the dark t.v. screen intently.

"You know you're going to have to sleep on that thing, because I'm not moving," Summer muttered.

"I'm not sleeping on that piece of shit."

"I'm not going to sleep on it. You should be, like, the gentleman."

Seth snorted. "Good night."

"I told you, I'm not moving."

"So stay there." Seth rolled over and pulled his shirt over his head.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"It's hot. Relax, okay? And stay over on your side."

"Yeah, because I'd kill to jump _you_ in ninety _thousand_ degree weather."

"Whatever gets you off. But seriously, that side."

"I'll try to control myself."

"That's all I'm asking."

Summer glanced down at her tank top and jeans, wondering if she should change too for bed. She looked back at Seth's bare, slightly tanned, back, wondering if he thought about every move he made, calculating things, trying to make her go crazy. Or at least things he thought would make her go crazy. If he thought at all about the things that might break her heart.

But he was Seth Cohen. And he was gross and self centered and conceited and so damn sure of himself and he probably thought about everything he did and how it would make him look, because that's who he was.

But maybe she would kill to jump him anyways.

Summer liked to sleep. She loved to sleep in. It didn't matter where she was or how old she was, she always liked to sleep. Sleeping on your side underneath a stiffly ironed sheet, terrified that you were going to roll over in your sleep, however, seemed to change even Summer.

She got up at around eight, getting out of the bed as quickly as she could. She cast a quick glance at Seth's bare back down to his black jeans and gray boxer waistband. She had felt his arm warm against hers several times when she was almost asleep, sending jolts through her skin until she was awake again. And when she had woken up, the firm, tanned bicep was brushing against her hair. He looked so innocent when he slept, flat except for the curve of the small of his waist on his stomach. His hair flopped into his face, and for the rest of the night, he had been curled into a ball. In the morning, however, he was lying straight, with the sandy sheets pressed against his chest, the sun reflecting tiny beads of sweat.

Summer always imagined that sleeping next to a boy would be disgusting. She was an only child and only saw cousins and aunts and uncles on holidays, so she hadn't had to go through it. But waking up next to Seth was comforting until she realized she wasn't supposed to be comforted by the shape of his back or the warmth of his breath. He didn't stink, either. He actually smelled like the college professor her Aunt Leslie used to date. Damien, and he smelled like a man. He used a bit too much cologne, but over his suits, it just slightly wafted, and to Summer's seven year old nose, it smelled like James Bond.

Summer left the bedroom and went to the shower, hoping that the water would be freezing.

Seth woke up ten minutes after the water turned on. He squinted his eyes at the open curtain, feeling the cramps in his arms and legs almost immediately. He stretched his arms out as far as they would go, groaning quietly at the cracking of his muscles. But while his right arm stretched out, the soft strands of hair he'd found in the middle of the night were nowhere to be found. He pushed himself up, and just as quietly, murmured, "Holl?"

But it hadn't been Holly. Holly always wrapped herself around him when she slept. The opening of the bathroom door made him realize he wasn't at home. The dark haired girl in the light pink towel reminded him that Holly wasn't here, and he had slept the night next to Summer Roberts.

"Morning," he groaned, rolling over onto his back.

"Morning," she whispered, flipping her hair out of the back of the towel.

"Did you, uh, sleep..."

"Shh." Summer pointed over at the cot, Ryan and Marissa's faces turned towards each other. Seth raised his eyebrows.

"Wow. The brother moves quick."

Summer shrugged, grabbing a blue tank top, white skirt, and underwear, and going back into the bathroom. Seth rubbed his head and stood up, walking lazily over to the suitcases. Summer stepped out of the bathroom, returning the small smile he gave her. He had seemed to have forgotten that he hated her enough to want to leave her on the side of the road, so she wasn't going to remind him.

"We should go get something to eat." Seth pulled a tee shirt over his head.

Summer nodded up at him walking through the motel door when he opened it, noting the now familiar warmth from his chest when she brushed her shoulder against him.

Restaurants within walking distance weren't fancy. Some were cleaner than others, however. Summer really just wanted to get out of the desert. She didn't care if it was skiing or back to the place she had learned to hate; she was just sick of the desert wind. But when she was walking into a place that finally had air conditioning, Seth's hand was pressed against her shirt which was already starting to stick to her back. And that was good.

Seth sat across the table in the booth with her, and she could feel the tapping from his foot on her ankle. As he read the menu, words were formed on his lips, some of them recognizable as breakfast foods, but eventually, they became incoherent. Then, the words took form into whispers.

"I see a little silhouetto of a man, scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?"

Summer looked up, Seth's eyes still focused on the menu. She whispered back, "Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me."

"Galileo." Seth's lips moved, his voice rising to his normal speaking voice, but his face still not turning up.

"Galileo." Summer crossed her arms, staring at his lips.

"Galileo." Seth bit his lip, his finger pausing at something on the menu.

"Galileo."

"Galileo figaro magnifico." He lay the menu down, leaning back in his seat, finally looking at her.

"I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me." Summer smiled across the table at him.

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family." Seth's eyebrows rose.

"Spare him his life from this monstrosity." Summer cocked her head slightly to the left.

"Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?" Seth's words slowed down from the song's tempo.

"Bismillah, no, we will not let you go." Summer accented her syllables carefully.

"Let him go!"

"Bismillah, we will not let you go."

"Let me go."

"Will not let you go."

"Let me go."

"Will not let you go."

"Come on, let me go."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Summer shook her head slightly along with the beat.

"Mama mia, mama mia." Seth's half grin came back.

"Mama mia, let me go."

"Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me." Seth randomly raised the volume of his voice, his grin growing even wider.

"For me."

"For me." He put on a huge falsetto, closing his eyes, and banging his head to an imaginary guitar solo. "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye."

"So you think you can love me and leave me to die. Oh baby, don't do this to me baby."

"Just gotta get out."

"Just gotta get right out of here."

Seth pulled out an air guitar, his eyes still closed, and he started singing the whining strands. "Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. Nothing really matters. Anyone can see."

"Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters to me." Summer dropped her voice to barely more than a whisper, and murmured, "Any way the wind blows."

Seth snapped his eyes open, a huge grin on his face. "You're a fan of Queen?"

"Who isn't?" Summer picked up her menu again, smiling up at the waitress when she walked over.

Seth watched as she ordered, her smile plastic to the waitress. After he muttered, "I'll have the same," he watched Summer tap her fingernails.

She caught his eye looking at her, raising her eyebrows slowly.

Seth shook his head and leaned backward. "So."

"So."

"Do you ski?"

"Like once. With my dad."

"Oh. I've gone with...you know, Brad, but he's more of a snowboarder so..."

"So I get to watch you fall. Looking forward to it, Cohen."

Seth cracked a grin without meaning to. Summer, Summer Roberts, was sitting across from him with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face, calling him Brad's own pet name for him.

"Yeah, well, seeing you come off your pedestal onto your ass could be enjoyable as well."

"This is why I plan to sleep and read the entire time."

"Aw, come on, Roberts, what fun is that? You have to have enough coolness in you to at least ski a little. Plus, it's a perfectly fine ass; you shouldn't be ashamed to fall on it." Seth's grin stretched farther, in control of his facial expressions again.

Summer's smirk morphed into a smile against her better judgment. There had to be something clever to shoot back, but at the moment, she couldn't think of anything.

Seth's head was tilted, and he wasn't moving his eyes from hers. His cocky grin suddenly seemed less cocky, and more endearing, and Summer wondered if she was turning into one of those Seth Cohen groupies. Not that she hadn't been a fan of his from the beginning, but the groupies were one step away from having tee shirts.

Bless the waitress and pancakes, waffles, bacon, and toast. It broke their eye contact and gave Summer something to do with her hands. She risked another sideways glance a little later, but Seth was staring at the mountain of food in front of him.

"God, hungry much, Roberts?"

"Maybe." She shrugged, not daring to risk another look up at him. And when she did, he was sticking a finger in the syrup the waitress placed in the center of the table.

"Ew."

Seth looked up unapologetically, shrugging. "Wanted to make sure it was maple."

"You know I'm going to have to eat that. And God knows where you've put those fingers."

"Well most recently, they were in your hair, so maybe I should be the one Valley Girl-ing it up. I don't know how big of a slut you are with your hair. I could be getting remnants of the entire state of California's fingers. Hell, why stop there? Maybe you've been on tour to Nevada, which means Vegas, which means businessmen from all over the world. My word, maybe I should wash my hands."

"Well there was Mr. Bryant in Las Vegas, but he promised that I was the only girl he'd ever touched, so you should be safe."

Seth laughed, dumping half the syrup over his entire breakfast.

"Ew. There's maple syrup on your bacon."

He shrugged. "It's all mixing in my belly later anyway."

"Belly?"

"Sorry. Stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and all that shit. Belly just came easier."

Summer rolled her eyes, biting into her own bacon. She sat in awkward silence, wondering if he was waiting for her to make conversation.

"So, _Summer_, the holidays are nearly upon us, and for the sake of conversation, how will you be celebrating them?"

She mimickingly shrugged. "Pretty basic. Tree, family, forced talk about the weather, my grades, and colleges I might be considering. What about you?" She crossed her arms again and looked up at his eyes concentrating on the waffles on her fork.

"_Well_, since you asked, I actually have a little invention."

"You invented the holidays. Wow, Seth, I knew you thought you were king, but I didn't know you thought you were God too."

"God _and_ Moses. Oh yes, young Summer, I am leader of everything. As you might recall, my father is Jewish, and it just made sense to capitalize on the best Christianity _and_ Judaism had to offer. Chrismukkah. Eight days of presents followed by one day of many presents."

"Chrismukkah."

"Yeah, so I don't offend either The New or The Old Testament."

Summer shrugged again, looking back at her abandoned fork. "I wouldn't know. I'm not really religious."

"Excellent, me neither. I just do it for the free tee shirts. And the food. Damn, the food is good. So is this." Seth bit into his drenched toast.

Summer nodded. "It is good."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes until Summer couldn't take it anymore.

"So, you're probably not going to be doing that much skiing anyway. Holly will need tending too."

Seth set down his fork, a slightly amused smile on his lips. "Why are you so interested in my relationship with her? You don't really know her, and you're just getting the pleasure of getting to know me."

"Sh-She's your girlfriend. I thought you'd like to talk about her. Marissa does, anyway. About her boyfriend."

Seth snorted. "Holly and I aren't exactly the golden couple that is Marissa and Luke."

"But you guys are still going out."

"I don't like that one. That label. Going out. We don't really go out that much."

"Well, yeah, you're a player, right, so you'd just stay in."

"No one called me a player until I made out with you, so I don't know if I'd stick to a stereotype, but yes. Actually, usually we just stay in and have dinner with her father or at 'the club.'"

Summer cast her gaze downward. "Oh."

Seth nodded, looking down too. "Sorry. I didn't mean to."

"You didn't do anything."

"I yelled. And, I mean, if I insulted you, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I shouldn't have made any sort of assumption or, like, pried or anything anyway."

"It's okay. You can't help but delve into my personal life. It's all just because you're in love with me. And I totally can respect that."

Seth looked up at her, making sure she was smiling until he broke out another grin. Summer giggled almost silently. "Yeah, actually, that must be it."

"You can't hide things from me, Summer."

"Obviously not."

"I should've expected the prying anyway. You're also a rather nosy person."

"I'm _nosy_?"

"Yes." Seth took a sip from his coffee mug.

"Well, I'm not the one that wanted to make small talk about the holidays and offered my entire opinion on religion."

Seth furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Summer's jaw dropped, her cheeks slightly flushing. "Sorry. I'm kind of going through these rage blackouts."

"Really."

"Yeah, ever since I smacked your girlfriend."

"Yeah, well, Holly'll do that to a person."

Summer nodded, finishing her breakfast, and asking the waitress for the check. She grabbed her purse. Seth rolled his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Paying for my half. It's clean cut down the middle, because we got the same things."

Seth sighed and pulled the check towards him. "I may not be a gentleman, but I'm not a pathetic ass either." He pulled a card out of his back pocket and handed it and the check back to the waitress.

Summer raised her eyebrows, but Seth just shrugged. "Good breeding. You ready to get out of here?"

"Yeah."

Seth stood up, Summer following, and let his hand graze the back of her shirt again on their way out. He closed the door behind her, and turned back to her palms on his cheeks. She leaned forward, her eyes closed, but Seth leaned backward.

"Hey! What's up?"

Summer fell back down to the balls of her feet, blushing furiously. "Sorry. I just…I'm sorry."

She started to walk away, her arms crossed beneath her breasts, but Seth caught her arm. She spun around to look at him, tears threatening her eyes.

"Hey. Hey, don't do that." He pulled her arm closer to him, letting her face settle into his shirt so he wouldn't get to see her cry.

Summer kept her arms tucked in between the two of his. It was one of the most awkward almost hugs she had felt in her entire life. She also fit the best into it.

"…and it's not that you're a bad kisser or anything, it's just that she was already ready to rip off my balls before, so if it happened again, I don't think I'd ever get to become one of those grandpas that looks underneath his granddaughters' friends' skirts, which really is my goal, so you know, we wouldn't want anything to come between me achieving it."

"Cohen." Summer looked up at him, realizing that he had her tucked underneath his chin.

"Yeah."

"Don't ramble. I get it."

"All right, buddy." He patted her on the head, a shy smile making its first appearance. "Let's wake up the lovebirds back at the motel."

Summer nodded, letting him pull away his warmness, and walk her back down the street. This time, though, he kept his hands to himself.

Summer opened the door to see Ryan finish making the cot, laying the pillows down. He offered her a timid smile, and she smiled back until Marissa came out of the bathroom, her hair still soaking.

"Marissa? Is something…"

"My parents are getting divorced."

"Oh, baby, I'm sorry." Summer walked across the room and reached her arms up around Marissa's shoulders. "Do you want to go back?"

"I don't want to ruin you guys' trip."

"We'll call a cab, and the boys will keep going. I don't care."

"We can go with you," Seth replied. "I'd want to protect my mother from your father, anyway, Cooper. I've seen how he still looks at her." He smiled, attempting reassurance.

Marissa smiled back, but shook her head anyway. "My dad said it would be better if we kept going anyways."

Summer nodded. "When my parents broke up, my mom dumped all of my stuff and my dad's stuff on the sidewalk. At least this way, by the time we get back, your dad will have had time to get all your stuff dry cleaned."

Marissa smiled a little more faintly. "I'll probably have to live with my mother. Oh my god, I'm going to have to live with my mother."

"Marissa, think of it this way. You'll get to stay around me and Ryan. What a lucky girl." Seth stepped closer, his hand falling on Marissa's back. Summer noticed. She noted that it must just be something he did, not anything special for her.

"Right. It won't be so bad. You guys just have to promise to keep the pool house unlocked in case I need to escape."

Ryan coughed quietly. "Uh, that's actually where I sleep."

Seth shot him a look.

Ryan stammered, "B-But of course, I can take the couch. Anything for the survival from Julie Cooper."

"That's the spirit, dude. So are you sure you still want to go?" Seth asked.

"Yeah. I'll go. This is going to be fun, and I should…do fun now. I don't want to deal with my parents now anyways."

Summer smiled, her pinky grazing against Seth's thumb on Marissa's back.

"I'm fine, you guys. Let's get back on the road. The bus has probably been there for at least ten hours now. We don't want them to miss us too bad."

They got to Colorado another three hours later. Seth getting attacked by Holly as soon as they stepped out.

"Oh my god, Cohen, I was so worried. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine. We just had some car trouble."

"We? Like you and Ryan?"

Summer stepped out of the backseat and Holly's face fell. "Oh. Her. I forgot you were coming with her."

"Yeah. I told you a while ago."

"Yes. Yes, you did. I should've remembered."

"You should've."

"Did she behave herself on the way over?"

"Like an angel."

"Like a nun?"

"What are you so worried about?"

"She _wants_ you, Seth. Can't you see the way she looks at you?"

"Like a human being she wants to crush?"

"More like one she'd like to bang."

"Well, I can't help that, baby. So do most of the kids here. Hell, even most of the teachers."

Holly giggled, leaning up to kiss him on the lips. He leaned up to make it a short kiss, still slightly smiling at her, though.

"You want to help me get my stuff?"

Holly snorted and pulled open her jacket to show off a dark red bikini top. "I'm going to the pool. Meet me there when you're unpacked."

"What room am I in?"

Holly rolled her eyes. "The teachers are so lame and denied Daddy's request for us to room together. You're with Ryan and like some random. But I can sneak over whenever you need me."

"Oh. Okay. But I meant what number? Do you know?"

"Yeah, like 257. You're all the way in another hall from me."

"All right. Well, I'll see you in a few minutes."

"Okay." Holly looked at Summer one more time before kissing him on the mouth and prancing off. Summer rolled her eyes, angry that Holly knew she had been watching, and raised her voice. "Hey, Mariss? Mr. Glick told me our room number before we left." Her eyes fell on Seth, pleased that he had been watching her instead of Holly leaving. "255."

_Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics by Freddie Mercury_


	5. The Risk

_Note, I changed the rating, because I don't think I could keep up with an R. Also, now this story can be more available to more people._

Summer hated this. She actually loathed the entire experience. She'd never really liked skiing even though she wasn't horrible at it; she didn't like having to share a room with two other girls that were so...Newport; she liked hearing Holly giggle next door even less. And it's what she should've expected. Just because Seth was being decent to her didn't mean he was going to be talking to her when the rest of the school was around.

Marissa and some girl named Janie took one bed, leaving Summer alone in the other. Marissa was never really good at the friend thing, no matter her parents' marital status. Summer didn't even remember why they decided to room together.

She lay on her back, ready to go home where at least she could avoid the people that didn't want to talk to her. Marissa and Janie were at the hot tub, parading for the drooling boys in white bikinis. There was a book beside her on the bed, but it had taken a turn for the worse and Ryan Adams on her iPod seemed like a much more appealing alternative. She heard a knock against the wall, but she had gotten used to that with three boys next door. They never seemed to sleep. When another knock came, she exhaled, turning up the volume.

_"Laughing with your pretty mouth, laughing with your broken eyes, laughing with your lover's tongue, in..."_

Suddenly, the wall beside her head clicked. Summer sat up, pulling out her earphones. There was a door next to her bed, but she had taken it as a linen closet or something. She twisted the doorknob to reveal another open door and Seth Cohen lying on his bed in the same spot hers was.

"You figured it out." He laughed, letting his feet hit the floor.

"That's why you were attacking the wall for the past..."

"Ten minutes. I actually just gave up."

"Oh. Sorry."

She looked around the empty room, raising her eyebrows. Seth shrugged. "Jacuzzi. They just have to watch the girls in bikinis because we don't get enough of that at home."

"Oh, no of course not."

He smiled, slipping off of the bed completely, and settling himself in front of the open doors. Summer was still on her side, refusing to step into the room.

"So, what do you want?" She slowly mimicked his position, crossing her legs.

Seth shrugged and scratched his head. "I was bored and I heard music."

"You could hear through the wall?"

He nodded slowly. "Having a party over there, Summer?"

"I guess you could call it that."

"Where are Marissa and Jane?"

"The boys have to be watching something, don't they?"

"Well that makes sense. So what were you doing there all alone?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I like it quiet. Told Ryan and Tim to go without me. It's too loud over here usually."

Summer giggled. "You're complaining?"

"Between them going on and on about all the girls they've...achieved and Holly going on about how degrading they are to women, the silence is preferable."

"You don't join in?"

"Nah, I think it's degrading to women." He grinned, but Summer didn't return it.

She was suddenly silent. Seth looked concerned, but just changed the subject. "So how's Jane treating you?"

Summer shrugged. "She doesn't."

"Lucky. Pathetic excuse for a human being. Excellent in bed, though, according to Tim."

Summer tried to hide it, but the corners of her mouth curled again.

"A smile, ladies and gentlemen." Seth's smile was softer, his eyes big. "Do you..." All of a sudden, he slammed the door shut in her face. Summer sat still, slightly dazed, but heard the high pitched voice that she had gotten used to from the room next door. She stood up and went back to listening to Ryan Adams, a tear in the corner of her eye.

_"Where do you go when you're lonely? Where do you go when you're blue? Where do you go when you're lonely; I'll follow you. When the stars go blue."_

The door opened, and Seth walked into her room with his arms crossed. "Sorry about that. Holly. She just...she would've exploded if she saw I was talking to you."

"Mm-hmm."

"Summer, she'd have you taken out."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Jesus, Roberts, you know how she is."

Summer's face turned colder and she nodded slightly. "You shouldn't be in here. Dr. Kim finds you and she'll take off your head."

"Roberts, I said I was sorry. I got rid of her, though."

"What for? Why didn't you just go for a fuck?"

His annoyed eyes turned soft again at her harsh but even tone, and he sat with his legs tucked in beside her bed. "Summer."

She looked at him with one eye, and he pulled in his lips. "I'm sorry."

"What do you want?" She asked in less than a whisper.

"I just want to talk to you."

"You could talk to anyone. Why choose someone who your girlfriend hates?"

"Because I think you're interesting." He smiled gently at her, resting his head against the comforter.

Summer thought about it for a second, and her voice returning back to its usual volume, she said. "I'm not going to have sex with you."

He laughed. "Fair deal."

"Okay."

He nodded and picked up the book next to her. He placed it on the floor and sat on the bed. "So what were you listening to?"

"Ryan Adams."

"Didn't he remake some Oasis song?"

She nodded, but he shook his head. "Why are all these people messing with a good thing?"

"A good thing like Oasis?"

He nodded. "Well, he remade Wonderwall, right? That's all people remember Oasis for."

"You like Oasis?"

"I love them."

"I wouldn't have guessed."

"You can't guess a lot about me."

Summer nodded, turning off the music in a final decision. "What did Holly want?"

Seth rolled his eyes. "She wanted to know why I wasn't with Ryan and Tim. Because she has to know where I am every second."

"Isn't that a good thing? She cares." Summer said bitingly.

"I guess. She's just so incessant. It seems like she wants to get me on a leash."

"Maybe she loves you."

"She doesn't understand."

"Understand what?"

"How to care about someone else. It's because she's so spoiled."

Summer laughed. "You're a Nichol. Your grandfather owns Newport and everyone in it and you're calling someone spoiled?"

"I'm not spoiled. I can just get certain things if I want them."

"So you can understand how to care about someone else even though you can get anything you want."

"I can't."

"Can't what?"

"Can't get anything I want."

"That's a lie." Summed pulled down the pillows and leaned back against them.

Seth shook his head. "No."

Summer looked up to see him watching her. "I said I wasn't going to have sex with you. No matter how much you stare at me."

"See? What if I wanted you?"

"Well, if Holly wanted me, she wouldn't get to have me either."

"Holly doesn't want things she needs. That's her problem."

"So Holly needs me?" Summer grinned, trying to break the moment.

Seth shook his head silently. "She needs someone different from everyone she's known. Everyone she's used to."

Summer's grin faded and her voice dropped again as she repeated her previous question. "What do you want?" She murmured it like a statement, a question used just for the formality.

Seth stayed still for a second, and leaned down to place a kiss her forehead. "I gotta go."

And then he wasn't there anymore. The door closed and Summer was alone in hell again. She exhaled and pressed play on her iPod after switching the song to two British boys.

_"Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you. By now you should've somehow realized what you gotta do. I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now."_

Seth lay on his stomach, one hand underneath his pillow. His eyes were nearly shut when Ryan and Tim burst through the door, mumbling incoherently.

"Hey, Cohen!" Tim bounced onto the bed, landing on Seth's arm. "Did you finish that project?"

Seth sat up, a tiny grin slipping onto his mouth. "Uh, no, actually. I'm probably going to have to work on it again tomorrow."

"Sweet deal, man, Tamara was looking _fine_ tonight, though."

Ryan laughed sitting on Seth's other side. "It's a good time to be single, Seth."

Seth smiled, nearly laughing at Ryan. He nodded. "I bet so, man."

"But _dude_, Cohen, _Holly_ was lookin _hot_ too, so I wouldn't complain about being in your situation either, dude."

"Good to know, Tim."

"She was looking for you." Ryan fell backwards onto the bed.

"Yeah, I know, she came by."

"She _came_ by?" Tim laughed brashly.

Seth and Ryan both laughed at the look on Tim's face. Seth turned to look at Ryan. "How many beers in him?"

"I stopped counting."

"Me too, man!" Tim laughed again, slipping off the bed. As soon as he hit the floor, his voice dropped and his eyes closed. He clutched a pillow on the floor, mumbling, "Night, dudes...twas a good day..."

Seth raised an eyebrow, slipping down in the bed again, his head hitting the pillow. Ryan followed him, and shoved his own arm underneath his head. Ryan fell asleep almost immediately, leaving Seth to stare at the ceiling again, finally slipping off with a smile on his face.

"So, what, Sum, you're not eating now?" Marissa grabbed her purse and kicked the end of Summer's bed.

"What time is it?" Summer pushed herself up, bleary-eyed.

"Like 9. Partying last night?" Jane asked, a deeply sarcastic tone in her voice.

Marissa shot her a look that was half irritated, half amused. "Summer, do you want to eat or not?"

"Um..." Summer glanced at Jane, and shrugged. "Fine. Just let me get dressed."

"Be quick," Jane deadpanned, leaning against the open doorway.

Summer glared at her for less than a second, then grabbed her bag, and exited into the bathroom.

As soon as the door was shut, Jane went off. Marissa caught some of it, but twirling her hair seemed a lot more interesting. "Don't even know why we're rooming with her, y'all were never that close to begin with. And she's such a bitch, don't you think? So catty and it's always like she's mocking you behind your back, you know? Such a _bitch_. Seriously, Coop, I don't know what you see in her. If you feel bad for her, or whatever. Maybe you guys have just been friends for too long. I can't take it, though. She just sits here and does nothing, who does that, you know? Ew, I just...hate her."

"She's all right, Jane. You won't have to deal with her for that long anyway." Marissa was used to the bitching, especially from Jane.

"You know she's talking about us, though. I have no idea to who, though. Who would talk to her, you know? Well, besides you, because you're just too nice, Coop. Seriously."

Marissa shrugged, too tired to defend Summer.

"And what she did to _Holly_. I have no idea what's wrong with Cohen. He has to be on drugs, or _blind_, or something. To have something as good as _Holly_ and just be willing to _risk_ it, you know? She's not even that pretty."

"Summer's not ugly. He doesn't have to be blind." Marissa's hate for Holly was strong enough to come in.

"I guess. I mean, she's no Holly, though."

Marissa snorted underneath her breath and checked her watch.

"Coop, you cannot seriously think she deserves a second glance from someone like _Cohen._ I mean, he's just...gorgeous. And he and Holly are so...perfect, don't you think? I mean, you and Luke are sweet together, and everyone knows that, but Cohen and Holly are just...like Brad and Jen, don't you think?"

Marissa raised her eyebrows, nodding absently, and started pushing back her cuticles.

Jane sat on the bed, crossing her legs and staring at the ceiling. "I wish I had a guy like that. I mean, Luke adores you, and _everyone_ knows that. And Seth's just...perfect. He's just...intriguing, no?"

"He is that."

Jane nodded, satisfied. "It just makes you wonder, no? How someone like Seth Cohen would think he had to, like, boost his self confidence or something."

"Because he doesn't have enough of that."

Jane giggled. "Coop, you're so _bad._ But I mean, that's why he keeps Roberts along, isn't it? I mean, what else could it be?"

Marissa opened her mouth, but Jane put up a hand. "Don't try, Coop. You don't have to lie for her anymore."

Summer opened the door abruptly, her head down, and grabbed her purse off her bed.

"Finally." Jane rolled her eyes, jumped up, and walked towards the dining hall. Marissa waited a few seconds for Summer to get to the door, and she looked amusedly at Jane stomp off.

"I'm sorry I made you guys wait," Summer mumbled.

Marissa laughed. "Jane's just got a stick up her ass."

Summer wondered for a second whether or not that comment was supposed to make her feel better. She decided to pretend it did as she quickened her pace to keep up with Marissa's strides.

"She doesn't like me," Summer muttered.

"Did you just hear her?" Marissa stopped suddenly, a hand on her hip.

"Hear her? What are you talking about? Did she say something about me?" Summer stammered, her head sliding back down.

Marissa pondered on whether or not to believe her, but just shrugged.

Most of the boys in the hall were just wearing boxers and tee shirts. The teachers ignored it, because most of them were half asleep too. The girls were dressed, because it was just another fashion show. Summer touched a hand to her barely straightened hair. Jane had ditched her and Marissa, and Marissa looked like she wanted to leave next. She eyed Summer for a second, put on a smile, and grabbed her hand.

"Come on."

She pulled her over to the table where Luke was. Marissa sat down next to her boyfriend, leaning over to kiss him good morning. Summer eyed the table, now vacant of empty seats. She nodded silently and started to walk off.

Marissa pulled away from Luke. "Hey, you guys, can you make some room?"

People started to shuffle, but Summer shook her head. "No, it's cool. I have to go see...him anyway." She pointed randomly and walked off before Marissa could stop her.

Summer thought for a second and glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching her. Then, she just grabbed a bagel and tried to leave without anyone noticing.

Summer hesitated outside the door, realizing she didn't really have anywhere to go. She thought for a second about Ryan, but he would probably be with Seth, and she knew he didn't want to see her when he was around the rest of them. Unless he pulled a complete character change, and really meant what he said. There was always the chance that he really was as perfect as she thought he was. It wasn't a thick chance, but Summer liked the idea of fairy tales. And he was every much the prince charming.

Summer exhaled slowly, and sunk to sit on the stairs. She couldn't keep thinking like this. Just because a few of her fantasies had come true, it didn't mean any of her life was perfect. Summer stood up, rather being in her room than in the middle of the hall where everyone could see her, so she started to head up the stairs and ran right into Seth Cohen.

His face was questioning, but he found his voice to say, "Hey..."

Summer looked up at his face, felt a tear fall, and threw herself into his chest, wrapping her arms tightly around him. Seth didn't move, but he awkwardly murmured into her hair.

"Hey, it's okay. What-what's wrong?"

"Seth?" Her voice was nearly silent, muffled further from going directly into his chest. "Do you think I'm ugly?"

Gently, he pulled her face up to look at him and shook his head. Carefully, he kissed her forehead and looked up at the sounds from the hall, then back at her.

"I have to go, but I'll talk to you later?"

Summer nodded, feeling his fingers against hers, and watched Seth run towards the doors. As soon as the door shut, he thumped Brad on his back and laughed with his entire face and chest.

_"When the Stars Go Blue" written by Ryan Adams._


	6. The Boundaries

_Wow. Okay, so this seriously is the most amazing response I have ever had to a story. I am thrilled that you guys like it, because I'm really starting to. Anyways, Josh Schwarz and Co. own everything, I am merely borrowing for entertainment purposes. Just please try to refrain from selling this, because then we might have a problem._

"Hey, dude, Tim's trying to sing 'Piano Man.' He's already five beers under and they keep coming. You _have_ to see this."

Seth laughed, but shook his head. "Nah, man, I have to finish this."

"Finish what?" Brad fell by the side of his bed, obviously disappointed he wasn't listening to a Billy Joel imitation at that moment. "You keep bailing on us. I mean, you thought Joel was funny at breakfast, but you had to leave ten minutes later. What's so important?"

"It's...nothing."

"If it was nothing, we'd be telling Tim to try Justin Timberlake next. What's up with you?"

Seth shrugged, smoothing out the blanket next to him. "When you see it, you'll know. It'll just take me a little longer."

"Like how little longer?"

"I don't know, a little."

Brad groaned. "Fine. Whatever, Cohen. Just make sure the longer stays more little than longer, you know?"

Without looking up, Seth deadpanned, "Brad, do you understand what you just said?"

"Uh...no."

"There you go. Have fun, young man." He flicked his hand towards Brad, ushering him out of the room. Seth watched him walk out of the room and down the hall, flipped his legs around to the side of the bed, and pulled open the door.

Summer sat on the other side with an amused look on her face. "You're like James Bond."

Seth laughed. "Yes, yes, I know."

"Which one was it this time?"

"Dr. No. Or at least that's what all his ex girlfriends call him."

Summer giggled and scooted closer to the barrier between the two rooms. Seth shared her smile and leaned an elbow on one of his knees.

"Okay, so my turn." Summer pulled in her lips in mock deep thought. "Which is worse: having Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct proclaim her desire for you, or sweet, innocent Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles doing the same thing?"

"So I'm stuck between being slashed to death with an ice pick during hot, wild sex with an unbelievably gorgeous woman, or a guy known as 'The Geek' chasing after me and trying to steal my underwear?"

Summer nodded, keeping her face serious. Seth stared at the floor in front of him, tilting his head to either side. "I guess...Anthony Michael Hall, because Sharon Stone always freaked me out no matter how many times she crossed her legs."

"That's a lie. She was gorgeous in that movie. Hell, I would've done her."

Seth laughed and nodded. "This is true, but let me say from experience, that those unbelievably gorgeous women get boring after a while. And there isn't a lot more to them, because they're used to getting their way just because of who they are."

"There's a lot more to Catherine than her beauty. She's a novelist and basically a psychologist."

"Well, I'm just saying in general. And at least with 'The Geek,' I could keep my heart beating."

"That's true."

"Okay, so my turn. Which is worse: being Velma Kelly in Chicago or Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office?"

"You like Broadway?" Summer raised her eyebrows.

"I saw the movie. Answer the question."

"Velma Kelly. Because she didn't let her feelings be played around with. Monica was left without the guy, mourning over herself."

"Fair enough." Seth nodded, letting his head roll off his hand to the wall. Summer nodded too, offering an apologetic smile without really apologizing.

"Let's play a new game." Summer pulled her legs up against her chest.

"Okay, whatever. Suggestion?"

"Truth or dare."

"Isn't that a little overdone?" Seth asked.

"Pick one."

"Truth."

"Do you ever wish your life was different?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"Choices. Everything's a choice. I picked some of the wrong ones."

"Why?"

"I never talked to you before."

Summer didn't blush. "You're just trying to hard to impress me."

"I'm serious. I care too much. I shouldn't. I shouldn't care what people think about each other. That's my problem. I don't care that much about what people think of me, but what they think about other people really interests me. Maybe it's because I was born to watch people, but I always notice."

Summer rested her head on her knees, turning so her knees touched her cheeks. Seth pulled in his lips and asked, "Truth or dare."

"Truth."

"Have you ever wanted to do something so bad that you couldn't? Like you wanted to, really bad, so bad that you couldn't figure out how? And then later, you wonder how things would be different if you had done it? And you think maybe it's the one thing that could finally fix this shit you've built around yourself? Maybe this one moment could've solved the puzzle you're lost in?"

Summer looked up and smiled. "You have to stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Making things up that you think are the right things to stay."

"You have to stop _that_."

She raised her eyebrows.

"Thinking the worst of me."

"Because I'm wrong. You were really interested in my answer to that run-on question?"

"Well, obviously not. I can't think that way."

"You just put too much effort into a question."

"I thought that was the point of the game. When you're thirteen, it's the opportunity to kiss some person that you've always wondered about. Now it's just to think about boundaries and shit like that."

Summer sighed, her eyes still locked with his.

"You know what?" He pushed himself up with his palms. "I have...um, some studying to do. I'll talk to you later."

"Cohen, don't go. I'm sorry if I offended you."

"I'm sorry if I ever made you believe anything you said about me was true."

"Seth, stop. Please."

Seth stopped with the door half closed. He stared off for a few seconds, and then decided to sit back down.

Summer smiled and said, "Yes. I have. More than once. But I have this annoying thing about believing in fate, and thinking the place I am right now had to be, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me feel."

Seth nodded, a blank look on his face. Summer's eyebrows furrowed, "What are you doing?"

"Hang on. I have to process this. You said _please_."

She rolled her eyes, but let out a laugh anyways.

"I'm sorry, but I think I enjoyed that a little too much..." He mumbled, laughing too. "It's your turn."

"Truth or dare."

"Dare."

"Don't move."

"What?"

"That's it. Just...don't move."

Summer's knees were on the ground, and Seth realized she had again moved closer. By the time she was on her knees looking down at him, he couldn't swallow. Even slower, she leaned down and grazed his reddened cheeks with her two hands. She bit her lip as he just looked at her questioning eyes. He noted silently that her lip was faintly shaking, but she still rested her ankles as she sank down to catch his bottom lip between the two of hers. His hand came up for a second to her shoulder, softly pushing, but he still wasn't moving his head away. Summer pushed back against his hand, her mouth still moving slowly over his.

"Wait. Stop." Seth got a hand on both her shoulders and shoved a little harder than he had to.

Summer fell backwards onto her butt. She shrugged and walked back into her room, falling down sideways onto her bed. Seth sighed and followed her, lying next to her.

Seth opened his mouth several times, words almost coming, but he shut his mouth instead. Summer kept stealing looks at him, and, with a tiny smile, murmured, "Sorry."

Seth just rubbed his face with his hands. "I should go."

"Yeah. Okay."

He sat up and unceremoniously walked back into his room, shutting the door behind him and collapsing onto his bed. Upon falling down, Seth felt something hard and moving.

"Jesus, Seth..."

Ryan twitched again, shaking Seth's head off of his leg, and wrapping the covers over his head.

"Oh, sorry, Ry. I didn't see you there...what are you doing here? I thought you were out with Tim and them."

Ryan let his head stick out, turning to see Seth. "I got bored. They do the same thing over...and over..."

Seth nodded and pulled a pillow up behind his head. "Yeah."

"Do you really have a project or is it just an excuse?"

"No, I do. Well, kind of. It's...weird."

"What is it?"

"I'm finally...fixing something. Well, it's more like I'm getting it fixed, because I'm not technically doing the fixing myself."

"Is it good? Like, it's not going to hurt anyone, right?"

"No." Seth slumped down and closed his eyes.

"You sure?"

"Ryan, can we talk about this in the morning? I'm really tired."

"It's, like, 8."

"It's been a long day."

"If you say so. I'm going to go for a walk."

"Did I interrupt your nap, Ryan? Because I can leave."

"You're really tired. Stay. And if Holly asks, I'll tell her you're really tired."

"Man, have I ever told you I loved you?"

"Not recently. Don't make it a habit, either."

"I'll try, but it might slip out sometimes."

"I'll accept that. Night."

"Good night." Seth rolled over onto his stomach as Ryan walked out the front door and down the hall.

Ryan closed the door in syncopation with Jane next door. She noticed him first, eyeing the folds in his jeans around his hips.

"Ryan, right?"

He jumped, spinning around her voice. Jane giggled, leaving the smile plastered to her face.

"Uh, sorry. Yeah. I'm Ryan. You're...Jen?"

"Jane. You can call me Janie, though."

"Oh. Well...thanks, Janie."

She leaned her arm against the doorframe, and giggled again at his fumbling for words.

"You're Seth's...brother. I remember you, from Holl's parties."

"Yeah, I'm the one in the corner."

"I noticed that too. Why is that?"

Ryan shrugged, leaning against his own doorframe. "I get bored easily."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Can't find the right company."

"Well, if you need any help..."

Jane slipped to her right as the door she was using as support opened.

"Jesus..." Summer gasped as Jane fell on top of her, pushing the two of them into the room. Ryan laughed, leaning forward to see the two of them.

"Roberts! What...the hell...is your problem?" Jane rolled off of Summer, her cheeks on fire.

"Sorry. I didn't expect the door to have a hood ornament," Summer muttered. She stood up first and noticed Ryan. "Hey."

He smiled wider, "Hi."

"Oh, god, was I interrupting something?" Summer laughed, looking from Jane fixing her hair to Ryan's cocked head. "Sorry." She laughed louder as she walked away.

"Hey!" Ryan ran up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Actually, you came at just the right time. I was going to go to dinner alone."

"Well, wouldn't that be a travesty?"

"Yeah. Actually, it would. Care to be some arm candy?" Ryan extended his arm, making Summer laugh a little more nervously.

"Isn't it a little late for dinner?"

"I didn't get a chance earlier. However, all the more reason to bring someone along. Then, I won't be alone if everyone ate dinner at the time we were supposed to."

"Well, if you think you might end up being alone..." Summer looked from Jane's look of disgust to Holly walking down the hall towards them and smiled wider. "Let's go." She took Ryan's arm, laughing at the overly goofy smile on his face, and walked past Holly, who was raising her eyes at Miss Jane "call me Janie."

Ryan closed the door behind Summer, as she looked around the messy, yet empty, room.

"It's funny how much bigger rooms look when no one's in them."

Ryan nodded. "Quiet, too." He grabbed a dinner roll off of the buffet table, and sat on one of the ajar chairs, as he watched Summer look around the room.

"I don't want to go home," Summer giggled as she twirled around the wooden platform in the middle of the room. "This place was better than I thought it would be."

Ryan smiled at the dance steps she did quicker and quicker until she got dizzy.

"Come here." She held out her hand as he came closer, pulling him away from the decorated tables. He awkwardly stood in the middle of the hardwood floor.

"Now what?"

"Now you get to dance with me."

Ryan laughed, but shook his head. "I don't dance."

"I won't tell anyone." She took his two hands and pulled him around the floor, her sneakers and sweatpants sticking out in the glamorous dining room more than his feet narrowly missing his.

He shook his head. "And I thought I was awkward _with_ the music."

"I'm the only one here. You're not awkward."

Ryan shrugged. "I have a talent for sucking at dancing."

She rolled her eyes. "You're not that bad. Here, try this."

Summer pulled his hands in hers down to her waist, holding onto one of them. Her now free hand went around his shoulder, and she pushed his hands and feet around the wood.

"You're pretty good," Ryan murmured, his eyes on Summer's forehead as she watched his feet.

"That's what, like, three years of ballroom dance classes will do to you. Now you know why I'm a dork," She giggled, finally looking up at his eyes. His smile was fading, and his hand was getting warmer on her hip.

"Ryan..."

"Summer," Ryan whispered. "You know you're better than all of them, right?"

"I don't..." He put up a finger to her lips and leaned forward on the platforms of his feet. The closer he came, the more Summer's hand shook, until she brought it up in front of him.

"Ryan...I-I'm really glad I have someone like you as a friend."

"Friend. Right."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. We're friends."

"I'm just kind of...well, it wouldn't be fair to you. And there's...this thing that...well, I mean, I want to see how it works out."

"Right. Well...good luck with that," Ryan muttered, bringing up his own hand to rub his mouth. "So..."

"Do you want to eat?"

Ryan glanced at the abandoned roll on the dining table and back to Summer's eyes.

"Um, actually, I forgot. I was supposed to eat later tonight with a...nother friend. I should probably wait."

"Are you sure? I mean, I doubt a piece of bread will ruin your appetite. We could...I don't know, talk, or something."

"No, I'm good. Thanks, though." He found a smile and started to walk back out of the dining room.

"Ryan." Summer stood still in the middle of the wood floor. Ryan turned around to her eyes, still big. "I'm really sorry."

"It's no problem." He nodded curtly, but didn't get a chance to turn around with Summer's hand on his arm. She turned him around and leaned into his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck.

It took him a few seconds to realize she was hugging him, but she pulled back with a smile. "Thank you for the dance."

Ryan actually smiled and nodded, his lip twitching with words, but his head deciding against them. He walked away slowly, taking a last glance over his shoulder as Summer picked up a roasted potato, humming quietly to herself.

Ryan knocked quickly on the door, checking his watch to make sure it wasn't yet an obscene hour. Marissa came to it a second later, a smile on her face when she saw him.

"Hey. Um, what's up?"

Ryan's eyes skimmed the towel wrapped tightly around her and the drops of water that were escaping the towel around her head. "I...um, is...Jane. Here? Is she here?"

"Um...no. I think she said something about Tim doing karaoke."

"Oh. Okay. Um, thanks anyway."

"No problem." Marissa started to close the door, but Ryan interrupted her.

"Are you in for the night?"

"Well, yeah. I think so."

"I know I only talked to you, like, once, but...you want to...like, swim?"

"Oh. You know I have a..."

"Boyfriend. We'd swim as friends."

Marissa giggled, and thought for a bit more than a second. "Actually, it'd be good to get out of here. How about I call Luke, make sure he doesn't...freak or anything, and then I'll get changed? You're just next door; I'll knock when I'm done."

"Great. Okay."

"Okay." Marissa shut the door, and she smiled a confused yet satisfied smile. She looked carefully at the phone, but picked it up, ignoring her hesitation.

"No response is available from Room 324. Press 1 if you would like to leave a message."

Marissa hung up the phone and assumed that Tim was really butchering Billy Joel if it brought everyone out of their rooms. She grabbed her bathing suit anyway, quickly changed, and grabbed a pen to jot down a note for Summer or Jane.

"At the swimming pool. Tell Luke if he asks. Coop."

Marissa grabbed the damp towel, pulled a Harbor Pirates shirt over her head, and knocked on the boys' door.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Ryan asked, taking a towel of his own.

"Yeah. Does Seth want to come?" She nodded towards Seth still on the bed.

Ryan shook his head. "He's in and out of sleep."

"All right, cool. Shall we?"

Marissa smiled and nodded, thinking for a second about linking his arm, but he wasn't a girlfriend. So there'd be questions. She settled for walking next to him, the silence an odd mix between awkward and satisfying.

Seth rolled off the bed, yawning, but glad to be finally moving. Ryan had given him orders not to until the door was closed, and it was extremely gratifying to have Ryan be the one worried about some girl and what she thought.

He was ready to finally give in to make Brad happy and make an appearance when the door opened before he touched the knob. A flash of dark hair came in and pushed him backwards onto the bed he had been so happy in leaving. Sweet lips pushed against him. Quick fingers threaded through the hairs on his neck. And Seth had known it wasn't Holly since the second the door opened, but the thought of closing the door hadn't yet crossed his mind.

Much more slowly than before, the dark hair lifted off of him as if regaining some sort of memory and composure. She walked back to the door and closed it, then turned to look back at Seth leaning on his elbows.

"What are you...?"

"I'm sorry," Summer rambled. "I don't know what's up with me. I just...I've never been that obsession person. But...I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for days. And that sounds weird, because it is, and I mean...I've never really been like this before. What's up with me, you know?"

"I don't..."

"Neither do I. I have no idea. But all I want to do is kiss you again so I can think about it again later."

Seth fumbled with pushing himself up, and looked at Summer biting her lip and playing with her hands.

"Um...okay," he replied, finally in a sitting position.

"Really?"

"I guess. I mean I guess I've always been a crappy boyfriend. Why ruin a good thing, you know?"

Summer smiled, Seth mimicking it. It never occurred to her as weird how they could joke about cheating on his girlfriend. Not much occurred to her, because she was crawling back into his lap, his head only slightly lower than hers. And he was kissing her back. Finally, he was kissing her back. And his hand was pushing up her back, tiny folds of fabric coming with it. But he wasn't pushing her. Summer had fondled the idea that all Seth Cohen really wanted was sex ever since they had gotten into high school. She had forgotten tonight as she walked down the hall and into her room. She had no recollection as she read Marissa's note and figured Ryan had gone with her, because it obviously wasn't Luke; it wasn't Jane, because then the note would've been addressed specifically to Summer. After she had kissed him, the thought had resurfaced, but now that his hands were moving ever so slowly up her back, Summer decided she had always been wrong. She must've judged him too quickly, because Seth Cohen was as tender as he was in her dreams, and the only thing she had to feel uncomfortable about was whether or not she was kissing him the right way.

She had positioned herself with a thigh on either side of his legs, but she greatly preferred it when Seth pushed her over to the slightly rumpled cover and rested carefully on top of her, one of his hands trying to support his weight as the other combed through her hair. Summer had been nervous before, because to an outsider, it would appear that she was in control and had some sort of clue what she was doing. But when she was underneath him, he could take care of her and was forced to move to please _her_.

And she didn't know much about it, but Summer could tell he was good at whatever he was doing. He was gentle, but forceful, and everytime he made any sort of noise, she couldn't help smiling. This was bizarre, and it was bad, but he was so perfect.

"Summer...we're not..." He gulped slightly, his head ducking. "We can't..." He raised his eyebrows, trying to convey what he needed to with very little breath and very little desire to convey it at all. "So...maybe we should stop."

Abruptly, he rolled off of her and covered his mouth with one hand. Summer folded up, watching him breathe and his fingers tap compulsively against his leg. He noticed her looking at him and dropped his hand.

"Sorry about that." He wasn't looking into her eyes, but he was looking at her face. Summer nodded, her hand following his on his thigh.

"Not your fault." She smiled as her fingers found his.

He laughed exasperatedly, combing his hair with his free hand. "Yeah. Well...not completely. It's your father and mother's fault that you're so damn beautiful."

She softly smiled and brought up his hand to kiss his knuckle. "Well...I should...go?"

He shrugged, pulling lightly on her hand until she fell down on the bed next to him. They lay straight on their backs, watching the ceiling, their hand playing with each other's.

"This is bad," Seth finally said, decidedly.

"Yeah."

"Because if Holly ever found out, you'd...die."

Summer giggled at his frank tone. "Something like that. Or she might."

"No, you don't understand. She has minions that'll help her."

"Well, I..."

"We should just probably...not do it again."

"Probably."

"But..."

"But."

"But it was good. Nice."

Summer smiled, rolling onto her side and bringing their hands up to her collarbone. "Nice."

"Something like that." He finally looked at her and grinned into her eyes. Summer laughed and kissed his forehead.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"It's a possibility."

"Good." She walked through the adjoining rooms, leaving him with a single wave before closing the door. She was planning on replaying the entire day in her head until she fell asleep, but the girl in the room halted her.

"What the hell were you doing?" Jane asked, a hand on her hip.


	7. The Denial

Marissa wrapped the wet towel tighter around her chest, smiling at Ryan one more time before she walked into her own room. Summer and Janie were standing on opposite sides of the room, shooting each other death rays through their eyes.

"You guys, just give it a rest and go to bed. There's always tomorrow to hate each other."

"Seems to me like that little ho knows a thing or too about _going to bed_," Jane stated, triumphantly crossing her arms.

Summer just shook her head and, taking Marissa's advice, kicked off her shoes to lie down. "_Janie_, you have no idea what you're talking about."

"But I do have an idea what I was seeing. You. Cohen. What's going on?"

"You didn't see anything either. I was walking through a door. God forbid."

"Why else would you be over there at, like, eleven? Why would you be over there in the first place, you little ho."

"Just shut up for once in your life, you little bitch," Summer muttered, rolling over to her side.

"Holly's my best friend, whore. And I think she should know what trash her boyfriend is picking up."

"You don't know _anything_, Jane."

"You know what, bitch? You think you're so much better than all of us, but then you go all Newport and make a sad attempt at trying to steal someone's boyfriend. You just picked the wrong one to mess around with."

"Janie..." Marissa started across the room.

"Save it, Marissa. You can try to defend your sad little excuse for a friend, but the rest of us see her for what it is. Desperate, pathetic..."

"You better shut your mouth, _bitch_, or I'm going to have to shut it for you." Summer stood up, Marissa putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Jesus, you guys. Who are we, boys? Just calm the hell down and go to bed. Then after this trip, you're never going to have to see each other again."

"That a promise?" mumbled Summer.

"Well, we live in the same town, but you don't have to talk to each other."

"But someone has to do something about her whoring around our boys," Jane grumbled, mimicking Summer, and falling down onto her bed.

"Jane, isn't there a possibility you overreacted? You don't know the entire story."

"I should tell Holly."

"What is this, Fight Club? Can't we just live in peace until we get home? This is supposed to be a vacation." Marissa's voice strained, but both girls stayed quiet. "Okay?" She looked from girl to girl and when no answer came, she smiled. "Good. Now, good night." Marissa grabbed the pillow beside Jane and closed her eyes into it.

Soon enough, Jane's occasionally gentle, occasionally less than gentle, snoring came in, and Marissa looked for Summer's open eyes.

"Hey. Sum."

"Yeah?"

"Did you do it? Did you guys..."

"No. I'm not as much a whore as Jane likes to believe," Summer whispered.

"But he kissed you."

Summer shrugged, returning the smile that came to Marissa's face.

"God, you're lucky I really don't like Holly that much."

"I could take her."

Marissa laughed, pulling up her covers. "Not that I don't believe you, but I bet Holly would hire a firing squad."

Summer smiled to humor Marissa. "Good night, Marissa."

"Night, Sum."

"Ryan. Ryan, are you asleep?" Seth tapped Ryan's shoulder, pushing himself up on his elbows.

"Yes."

"Oh. Sorry, then."

Ryan groaned and pulled the blankets over his head.

"Were you with Marissa Cooper?"

Seth saw the blankets shift and Ryan give him a glare. "So yeah? You don't like her, right? Because, I mean, Luke's cool. But I'd have to be on your side of some fight, because, you know, the brothers thing. But he could definitely kick my ass. So it would be better if you didn't, but if you did, I understand, dude, because Marissa's really..."

"Seth. I don't like her. Don't worry."

"Oh. Okay. Good. You were with her all night, though, right? I mean, not _with _her, but around her."

"Not all night."

"So where did you go?"

"I just got something to eat."

"Alone?"

"No. Well, I mean, there was this girl..."

"Who is the reason why you don't like Marissa Cooper. So? A name?"

"Seth...she doesn't like me. Like that. I mean, I know she doesn't. So, would you mind if I didn't..."

"Because then you'll be embarrassed whenever you see her. Yeah, sure, man. However, if I can just say this...don't give up. I mean, you're a catch. She'd be lucky to have you. And she'll realize that sometime."

"Thanks, man, but she says there's someone else."

"Competition? For the rough, bad, handsome, young James Dean? Poor guy. Never knew what was coming."

Ryan smiled and rolled back to his side.

"See, you smile, because you know it's true. That's my boy." Seth clapped him on the shoulder and entertained the idea of sleeping.

Summer rolled to her other side, her face silently facing the door. She wanted to sleep so badly so that tomorrow would be today. It wasn't working though. She fluttered her eyes open and gasped.

Seth clasped a hand to her mouth, eyeing the two girls across the room. He extended a finger, gesturing for her to leave the room with him. Summer looked to Marissa and Jane too, then back to Seth and his humongous nearly brown eyes. She took his offered hand and let him lead her out of the room.

As soon as the door was shut, Seth spun her around and up against the door, burying his face in her neck. In the middle of the hallway on their school trip. His lips were carefully moving across her skin, very lightly, though, so it could've all been in her head that he was moving at all.

"Seth." She whispered, waiting for those eyes to look back at her. They were slow, but they came anyway. And he understood her unasked question.

"I can't sleep," he murmured, a grin brushing across his lips.

Summer nodded, and Seth felt her chest shake in silent laughter. "Okay."

And he kissed her. Again. Third time in one day. And it was heaven.

Seth threaded his fingers through the collar of her tee shirt, coaxing her lips more and more open. He felt Summer slip down against the door, but she was holding onto his neck, and he wasn't about to let her go. She was timid and tentative, but it made Seth feel like he had something to teach her. Something about desire and urgency and intensity. Something that he knew she had somewhere inside. Something that she had so much of that she should be teaching him.

Her hands brushed the skin on his lower back, confirming his suspicions that Summer was a natural. He shivered, finally feeling the effects of being surrounded by snow in Colorado, no matter how well heated the hotel was. Summer rubbed her hand along his arm, smoothing over the goosebumps prickling his bicep. His leg pushed against hers, pressing her harder up against the wall, as his hands slipped down to her hips. And she could forget that she was wearing cotton pajama pants, because she was with him. And that was really all that mattered.

"Seth." Summer moved her hand to the fold in his neck, holding him off of her.

He stared down at her, his lips pulled inside his mouth, his hand rubbing her hip.

"Could you...you know what, never mind." Summer smiled, her cheeks rising in temperature.

"No, what is it? Anything."

"It's just really stupid."

"Summer." He kissed her forehead, finally bringing up his hands to cup her cheeks.

"Could you just...tell me I'm beautiful?" Her eyes dropped from his face her hands slipping down his arms to cross underneath her breasts.

Slowly, she felt the pressure of his body against her arms, proving he was moving in closer. "Hey."

She glanced up at the sound of his voice, and he kissed her so softly. Whenever his lips were free, he murmured to her, "You're breathtaking. You're breathtaking."

He trailed his lips toward her ear, whispering, "And nothing about you is stupid." She shivered at his breath, so he pulled her away from the wall and wrapped his arms around her.

Summer buried her face into his neck as Seth ran his hand down her hair and underneath it to barely graze her neck. She closed her eyes and waited for his finger which came to push her face up to his, kissing her again, this time even harder. His lips pressed against her mouth, cheeks, neck, his hands nearly lost in her hair.

"You taste good," Summer whispered into his mouth when it met hers again.

"Well, I did brush for _more_ than two minutes."

Summer giggled, pressing her leg to him, but as soon as she was finally comfortable, Seth spun around and pulled his hands back to himself.

"I thought it was you."

Summer arched her neck to look over Seth's back, but his tone confirmed the sweet, girly voice.

"Holl..."

"I actually knew. I've known for a while. I lied to myself, though, because I really wanted to believe you were _that_ perfect. Stupid, huh?"

Seth's head tilted and his hand came out, but Holly shoved it away.

"Don't. I mean, I should've just gave you my blessing weeks ago. I know you've hated me for more than a month."

"I never..."

"I knew you hated me, and I knew you wanted her, but I didn't do anything to fix it." Holly's voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm sorry."

"Holly, did you find...oh. No."

Summer recognized the girl but upon searching her memory, only had her named as Holly's lone redheaded friend.

"What the hell were you _doing_ Cohen?" She asked, eyeing his position between Summer and Holly. Holly shook her head, taking a step forward.

"Mel, leave it be."

"Cohen, you did _not_. God, you were lucky to even get to go out with her to _begin_ with."

"Melinda, you don't..." Seth rolled his head in disbelief.

"No, Cohen, you don't know what the hell you got yourself into. You think you're so much better than everyone, but you're not. You don't even know what you have when you have it. And you, Sa...what's her name?"

"Summer," Holly muttered. "But Mel, maybe you should just go back to bed and let me handle..."

"Don't worry, Holly, you don't have to handle anything alone. _Summer_, you think you're so cool and above all the people that live here just because you wear dirty clothes that you bought that way. But here you are, making a sad attempt at stealing someone's boyfriend. That's about as Newport as it gets. You just picked the wrong someone." Melinda's voice was rising louder and louder as the doors down the hall opened and heads popped out.

"Mel, can't you just shut up? Please?" Holly sighed, putting a hand on her hip and glancing around her.

"Cohen, how do you get _off_? This is Holly. _Holly_. You can't _do_ any better than that. And when you get over this little...bitch, you're going to come crawling..."

"Who are you calling a bitch?" Summer asked, pushing out from behind Seth who automatically stepped in front of Summer when Melinda learned her name. "This isn't even your business. Why don't you go?"

Melinda took a step forward as the door to their right opened and Ryan came out. He instinctively stood in between the two girls, only looking at Seth and Summer for a second. Summer started to feel her eyes sting.

"Melinda, just calm..."

"She doesn't know what she's talking about. Stupid bitch." Melinda's voice grew more and more confident as a group of girls started to cluster around her.

Holly actually _was_ crying by now and threw up her hands. "Mel, don't do anything you'd regret. I have to...get out of here." She shot looks at the hall of open doors and started to push her way through the people waiting to see if anyone was going to get slapped.

"Look what you did, _Summer_," Melinda said angrily as Marissa and Jane appeared in their doorway.

"Oh shit," Marissa muttered as her hand covered her face.

"What did you two do?" Jane's voice was skipping multiple octaves, shrugging off Marissa's hand on her arm.

"Jane, why don't we go back..."

"_You_," Jane pointed at Summer, "are a stupid, stupid, _ugly_..."

"Shut up, Jane," Marissa said.

"And _you_, Cooper, need to learn where your loyalties lie," Jane shot.

"I just thing everyone here should let these things be handled by the people they involve."

Melinda crossed her arms, shooting daggers at Summer.

"Hey, Mel?" Jane said. "Would it be cool with you if I stayed the night in your room? I don't think I could sleep without clobbering _some girls_." She glanced from Marissa to Summer.

"Sure, Janie. See, _some girls_ know how to take care of each other." She pranced off with Jane and her posse in tow.

"It's over, you guys. Why don't we all just go to bed?" Ryan waved his arms and stole another look at Summer before leaving himself.

The hall emptied slowly with people grumbling until it was just Marissa, Summer, and Ryan.

"Come on, Sum." Marissa took Summer's hand to lead her back into their room.

"Just a second, Mariss." Summer absently held up her other hand towards Marissa, her eyes locked on Seth's tee shirt. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Don't worry about. It was going to happen anyway, so I guess now's as good a time as any."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"No. She might be eventually, but I doubt she's going to be very friendly to anyone for a while."

Summer looked sympathetically at his shy smile. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?"

He nodded and stepped forward to wrap his arms around her. "Good night."

"Good night." Summer smiled and walked into her room with Marissa. Seth hesitated and checked the hall one last time before closing his own door.

As soon as the door was shut, his cell phone went off. Seth picked it up and walked into the bathroom before answering it.

"Hello?"

"Dude, Cohen."

"Hey, Brad."

"That was your project?"

Seth laughed, sitting on the counter. "It worked, didn't it?"

"I guess you could say that. In some way."

"Got rid of Holly."

"Yeah...about that. I think you should go find her."

"Why?"

"I didn't stick around through your little soap opera in the hall, but I did see Holly run into the dining room, and...well, me and a few buddies saw her down shot after shot or something that looked a lot like hard whiskey."

"Are you serious?" Seth's smile disappeared.

"Yeah. I just think you should make sure she's okay."

"Yeah, all right. Where are you?"

"My room."

"Meet me in the dining room in like two minutes."

"All right, man."

Seth hung up the phone and dashed to the door.

"Where are you going?" Ryan called from Tim's bed.

"I think something's wrong with Holly. Brad saw her drinking really bad."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know. You want to come with me?"

Ryan sighed, looking around the room/ "Fine. Whatever."

The boys left the room, meeting up with Brad and walking to the dining room. There was no sign of Holly being there besides the line of ten shot glasses. Seth ran up to the bartender.

"Hi, did you see a blonde girl here a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah, she just left."

"Thanks."

"Look out for her. She didn't look in great shape."

Seth nodded, clapping a hand down on the bar before running out the door to the street. He looked side to side, and called, "Ho_lly_!"

Suddenly, to their right, they heard a deep coughing. Lying facedown in the hotel pool was a mess of blonde hair. Seth jetted over, not hesitating before he dived into the water and dragging her to the side. Ryan and Brad grabbed her two arms and pulled her out onto her back.

"Goddammit." Seth pushed himself up and sat down next to her. "Holly. Holly." He shook her shoulders, wiping at her mascara streaked cheeks.

"Seth, check for a pulse," Ryan said, his forehead creased with worry.

Seth lay two fingers against her neck, shaking his head. He pushed hard against her stomach, and water dribbled out of her mouth. Seth leaned down with one hand on either cheek and pressed his mouth against hers, pushing air into her body. He pumped her stomach again, trying desperately to remember the class he had slept through the year before.

"Holl, babe, come on," Seth muttered, pushing harder at her stomach. Holly's lips parted and more water came out, enough so they could hear another cough from inside her throat. Immediately, Seth picked her smoothly up, her back against his chest, and wrapped his arms around her chest, pushing one last time. This time she sputtered, and when she sat back up her eyes looked into his.

"Seth, I can't..."

"Shh." He put a finger to her lips, and pulled her legs, draping them over his other arm. Slowly, he stood up, Holly's arms coming around his neck. "You're gonna be fine." He carried her back into the hotel, Ryan and Brad trailing him.

He broke into a jog until he got to Holly's room, knocking on the door with his foot. Melinda and Jane opened the door, their eyes dilating when they saw Holly shivering in his arms.

"Holly! Oh my god, honey, are you okay?"

She nodded, clinging closer to Seth's neck. He walked her over to an empty bed and lay her gently down. He pulled at the comforter and draped it over her shaking legs.

"You guys should call the nurse, but she's going to be okay/."

"What the hell happened?" Melinda's voice was insistent, but not nearly as angry as it was half an hour ago.

Seth looked at Holly who shook her head on the bed. "She just had an accident. It's slippery around the pool."

"How'd you know she was there?"

Seth shrugged. "I knew. Good night, ladies. Good night, Holly." He leaned down and kissed her forehead before leading Ryan and Brad out of the room. As soon as the door closed, the three girls in the room ran over to Holly.

"Are you okay, sweetie?"

"He loves me."

"What?"

"Cohen. He still loves me. I knew he loved me. He's always going to love me. He's just in some weird sort of denial. But he still came. Running."

_Okay, so just to confirm. I know a lot of people got mad, because they thought Seth was laughing at Summer in chapter 5, but he wasn't. It was supposed to show how quickly he changed personalities to keep up with his popular friends and then Summer. And in the beginning I kept close to the episodes of season 1, but then I strayed, so this was supposed to be a throwback as well. Thanks for reviewing, and please continue. I'm glad the past three have come out so easily. Dreaming Ever the Wild is taking a bit longer. Thanks for reading._


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